Vocabulary and Analytical Reasoning

Garrulous

talkative

Repast

meal, food

Arcane

understood by few; mysterious or secret. "modern math and its arcane notation"

Hapless

unfortunate

Farrago (fuh-RAH-goh)

: a confused mixture : hodgepodge Farrago might seem an unlikely relative of farina (the name for the mealy breakfast cereal), but the two terms have their roots in the same Latin noun. Both derive from far, the Latin name for spelt (a type of grain). In Latin, farrago meant "mixed fodder"—cattle feed, that is. It was also used more generally to mean "mixture." When it was adopted into English in the early 1600s, farrago retained the "mixture" sense of its ancestor. Today, we often use it for a jumble or medley of disorganized, haphazard, or even nonsensical ideas or elements.

Beholden (bih-HOHL-dun)

: being under obligation for a favor or gift : indebted Have you ever found yourself under obligation to someone else for a gift or favor? It's a common experience and, not surprisingly, many of the words describing this condition have been part of the English language for centuries. Beholden is recorded in the Middle-English Arthurian poem Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. Indebted, which entered English through Anglo-French, is older and still very much in use. Those who don't mind sounding like English speakers of yore have another synonym of beholden to choose from: a now-archaic sense of bounden. That word is today more often used with the meaning "made obligatory" or "binding," as in "our bounden duty."

Albeit (awl-BEE-it)

: even though : although Albeit dates to the 14th century and comes from a Middle English word meaning, literally, "all (or completely) though it be." Its heritage is clear in its pronunciation, which is as though it were three words instead of one: all, be, it. In the early 20th century, albeit was accused of being archaic. That descriptor was never quite accurate; the word had mostly been holding steady at "not-terribly-common" since at least the mid-18th century. When albeit began to see a marked increase in use in the mid-20th century, several usage commentators proclaimed that it was making a comeback, and its "archaic" descriptor was fully recognized as no longer apt.

Putative

(adj.) generally regarded as such; reputed; hypothesized, inferred

Favored

Given to someone

Disinclination

a desire to avoid, aversion

Semiotic

of or relating to signs or symbols

Tepid

lukewarm; unenthusiastic, marked by an absence of interest

Panned

reviewed negatively

Queening

Behaving in an unpleasantly superior way to others (Ex: She was queening it over everyone at the soiree)

Torturous

adj. Marked by extreme suffering.

Impudent

disrespectful

Candour

the quality of being honest and straightforward in attitude and speech

Snubbed

being treated rudely or ignored by someone

Flabbergasted

(adj.) - astounded, stupefied

Strident

loud and harsh

Labyrinthine

complicated; highly convoluted

你叫什么名字？

我叫 [name].

Unbridled

(adj.) uncontrolled, lacking in restraint

Rooked

cheated; fleeced; swindled

Assuaging

making less severe, relieving, easing, satisfying

报纸

newspaper 我要看今天的报纸。 I want to read today's newspaper. bào zhǐ Wǒ yào kàn jīntiān de bào zhǐ.

Discerning

perceptive; exhibiting keen insight and good judgement

Contravening

to come or be in conflict with; go or act against; deny or oppose

Garlands

wreaths; flowery decorations; adorn or crown ("Garlanded with flowers")

Tribunal

a court of justice/ law

Supplicant

a person who asks, prays, or begs humbly and earnestly

Hamstring

(v.) make ineffective or powerless

Gauche

(adj.) awkward, lacking in social graces, tactless, clumsy

Conspicuous

Easily seen or noticed

Protracted

Extended in time; prolonged

Appraisal

evaluation or estimation of worth

Supersede

to take the place of; to replace

Cockle Stairs

winding or spiral stairs.

Idiom

A common, often used expression that doesn't make sense if you take it literally.

Fantastical

Imaginary, magic, supernatural

Synergetic

working together; cooperative

Pink

The pinnacle of something (Ex: The pink of academia)

Flagging

Weak from exhaustion "if you begin to flag, there is an excellent cafe to revive you" "she wants to revive her flagging career"

Elegy

a sad or mournful poem

Guttersnipe

1 : a young vagabond : an outcast boy or girl in the streets of a city 2 : a person of the lowest moral or economic station "Unfurl yourselves under my banner, noble savages, illustrious guttersnipes," wrote Mark Twain sometime around 1869. Twain was among the first writers to use guttersnipe for a young hoodlum or street urchin. In doing so, he was following a trend among writers of the time to associate gutter (a low area at the side of a road) with a low station in life. Other writers in the late 19th century used guttersnipe more literally as a name for certain kinds of snipes, or birds with long thin beaks that live in wet areas. Gutter-bird was another term that was used for both birds and disreputable persons. And even snipe itself has a history as a term of opprobrium; it was used as such during William Shakespeare's day.

Teem (TEEM)

1 : to become filled to overflowing : abound 2 : to be present in large quantity The verb teem and the noun team are not just homophones, they are also etymological kin. Teem is derived from Old English tīman or tæman, which originally meant "to bring forth offspring" or "to become pregnant." That word is related to the ancestor of team, the Old English noun tēam, meaning "offspring, lineage, or group of draft animals." Team can still be used to refer to a brood of young animals, especially pigs or ducks, but both teem and team have otherwise largely left their offspring-related senses behind.

Resuscitate (rih-SUSS-uh-tayt)

1 : to revive from apparent death or from unconsciousness; also : revitalize 2 : come to, revive The 16th century was a good one for words ending in the suffix -ate. Not only did our featured word, resuscitate, breathe life into the English language but so did the verbs anticipate ("to give advance thought, discussion, or treatment to"), eradicate ("to do away with completely"), estimate ("to esteem" or "to appraise"), and perpetuate ("to make perpetual"). It was a good century for words about words, too—vocabulary, quip, and hearsay all premiered as well.

Pertinacious

1 a : adhering resolutely to an opinion, purpose, or design b : perversely persistent 2 : stubbornly tenacious Remove the first syllable of pertinacious and say what remains out loud: you'll hear something that sounds a lot like the word tenacious, meaning "tending to adhere or cling." The similarity between pertinacious and tenacious isn't mere coincidence; both words derive from tenax, the Latin word for "tenacious," and ultimately from the verb tenēre, meaning "to hold." Another descendant of tenēre is tenure, a word that is typically used of the right to hold a job (especially a teaching position) for as long as desired.

Cronyism (KROH-nee-iz-um)

: partiality to cronies especially as evidenced in the appointment of political hangers-on to office without regard to their qualifications "Forsake not an old friend; for the new is not comparable to him" (Ecclesiasticus 9:10). Practitioners of cronyism would probably agree. The word cronyism evolved in the 19th century as a spin-off of crony, meaning "friend" or "pal." Crony originated in England in the 17th century, perhaps as a play on the Greek word chronios, meaning "long-lasting," from chronos, meaning "time." Nineteenth-century cronyism was simply friendship, or the ability to make friends. The word didn't turn bad until the next century, when Americans starting using cronyism to refer to the act of playing political favorites.

Stiction (STIK-shun)

: the force required to cause one body in contact with another to begin to move Stiction has been a part of the English language since at least 1946, when it appeared in a journal of aeronautics. While stiction refers to the force needed to get an object to move from a position at rest, it is not related to the verb stick. The word is a blend word formed from the st- of static ("of or relating to bodies at rest") and the -iction of friction ("the force that resists relative motion between two bodies in contact"). So, basically, it means "static friction" (or to put it another way, "stationary friction").

Artisan

A skilled craftsperson

Headwark

Headache; pain in the head

Smartful

Painful, distressing; (in later use also) stinging, irritating

一。to have 二。mouth; measure word for 'family member' 三。person; people 四。father 五。mother 六。older brother 七。older sister 八。and 九。younger brother 十。younger sister 十一。who 十二。this 十三。most popular and commonly used measure word 十四。that 十五。How many family members do you have? 十六。你家有几口人？ 十七。Who is in your family? 十八。你加油谁？

一。有 (you) 二。口 （kou) 三。人 四。爸爸 五。妈妈 六。哥哥 七。姐姐 八。和 九。弟弟 十。妹妹 十一。谁 十二。这 十三。个 (ge) 十四。那 十五。你家有几口人？ 十六。我家有【number】口人。 十八。你家有谁？ 十九。我家有爸爸妈妈哥哥和我。

Collusive

acting together in secret toward a fraudulent or illegal end

Betwixt [adverb or preposition] (bih-TWIKST)

between "Jack Sprat could eat no fat, his wife could eat no lean; and so betwixt the two of them, they licked the platter clean." Perhaps you've always said "and so between the two of them" when reciting the tale of Jack Sprat and his wife. That's fine. Betwixt and between have similar origins: they both come from a combination of be- and related Old English roots. Both words appeared before the 12th century, but use of betwixt dropped off considerably toward the end of the 1600s. It survived in the phrase "betwixt and between" ("neither one thing nor the other"), which took on a life of its own in the 18th century. Nowadays, betwixt is uncommon, but it isn't archaic; it's simply used more consciously than between.

Redux (ree-DUKS)

brought back—used postpositively In Latin, redux (from the verb reducere, meaning "to lead back") can mean "brought back" or "bringing back." The Romans used redux as an epithet for the goddess Fortuna with its "bringing back" meaning; Fortuna Redux was trusted to bring those far from home back safely. It was the "brought back" meaning that made its way into English. Redux belongs to a small class of English adjectives that are always used postpositively—that is, they always follow the words they modify. Redux has a history of showing up in titles of English works, such as John Dryden's Astraea Redux (a 17th-century poem on the happy restoration and return of the majestic Charles the Second), Anthony Trollope's 19th-century Phineas Redux, and John Updike's 20th-century Rabbit Redux.

Cowed

cause (someone) to submit to one's wishes by intimidation

Decamped

depart suddenly or secretly, especially to relocate one's business or household in another area

Melancholy

depression of spirits

Predecease

die before (another person, typically someone related by blood or marriage). "his second wife predeceased him" Jim (James) McClimans was predeceased by his parents Dr. J.W. McClimans and Martha Orr McClimans, as well as by his first wife, Carolyn Dyson Pirsig, his second wife, Marilyn Hardy McClimans, and special friend, Ann Mentz.

Maudlin

excessively sentimental

Grizzled

having or streaked with gray hair

Lubricious (lo͞oˈbriSHəs)

lewd, wanton, ribald [ˈribəld, ˈrīˌbôld]; greasy, slippery

Checking

limiting or controlling something

Vinaceous (vye-NAY-shus)

of the color of red wine The first recorded evidence of vinaceous in English dates from 1678, shortly before the accession of Mary II. If ever the queen used vinaceous, she was probably in the confines of her landscaped garden, admiring the vinaceous shades of petals or studying the vinaceous cap of a mushroom; since its beginning, vinaceous has flourished in the earthy lexicon of horticulture and mycology. It has also taken flight in the ornithological world as a descriptive word for the unique red coloring of some birds, like the vinaceous purple finch.

Controverts

refutes

Simony

the buying and selling of church offices

Hoi-polloi

the common people; the masses

Hoodwink

to deceive by false appearance : dupe A now-obsolete sense of the word wink is "to close one's eyes," and hoodwink once meant to cover the eyes of someone, such as a prisoner, with a hood or blindfold. (Hoodwink was also once a name for the game of blindman's buff.) This 16th-century term soon came to be used figuratively for veiling the truth. "The Public is easily hood-winked," wrote the Irish physician Charles Lucas in 1756, by which time the figurative use had been around for quite a while—and today, the meaning of the word hasn't changed a wink.

Irradiates

to expose to radiation or illuminate

Immolate

to kill as a sacrifice, especially by fire; to destroy or renounce for the sake of another

Duplicity

treachery, deceitfulness

Profligacy

wasteful and immoral behavior

Opulent

wealthy, luxurious; ample; grandiose

Renowned

well-known, famous, celebrated

Nigh

near in space, time, or relation

Volcanello

A small volcanic cone; (also) a volcanic island

Nutual

Expressed merely by a gesture

Consecration

dedication

Stouter

braver and more forceful; wider

Actuarial

calculating

Scrutiny

critical observation or examination

Keen

having a sharp edge; intellectually sharp; perceptive

Wherewithal (WAIR-wih-thawl)

means or resources for purchasing or doing something; specifically : financial resources : money Wherewithal has been with us in one form or another since the 16th century. It comes from our still-familiar word where, and withal, a Middle English combination of with and all, meaning "with." Wherewithal has been used as a conjunction meaning "with or by means of which" and as a pronoun meaning "that with or by which." These days, however, it is almost always used as a noun referring to the means or resources—especially financial resources—one has at one's disposal.

Improvident Provident

(adj.) not thrifty; failing to plan ahead providing for future need, frugal

Soirees

Parties; social gatherings; receptions

Mausoleum

a large tomb

Unflappable

always knows what to do in any situation; cannot be made nervous or anxious

Primogenitor

an ancestor, especially the earliest ancestor of a people; a progenitor

Ethos

beliefs or character of a group

Pliant

bending readily; easily influenced

Indemnify; Indemnity

compensate for loss, damage, or injury; reimburse; repay a payment for damage or loss

Innervates

connects to

Perfidy

deceitfulness; untrustworthiness

Forwent

give up, abstain or restrain from

Sanguinary

involving or causing much bloodshed "they lost heavily in the sanguinary campaigns that followed"

insensate

lacking physical sensation

Kinsman

male relative

Retching

vomiting

Edentulous

without teeth

Coquette

woman who flirts

Emollient (ih-MAHL-yunt)

something that softens or soothes Emollient derives from the present participle of the Latin verb emollire, which, unsurprisingly, means "to soften or soothe." Emollire, in turn, derives ultimately from mollis, meaning "soft." Another descendant of mollis is mollify (essentially meaning "to make softer in temper or disposition"). A more distant relative is mild, which can be traced back to the same ancient source as mollis. The adjective emollient first appeared in print in English in the early 1600s; the noun arrived on the scene soon after.

Vitreous

like glass in appearance or physical properties

Upend

set or turn (something) on its end or upside down

Dysphemism

A derogatory or unpleasant term used instead of a pleasant or neutral one (In essence, dysphemism is the opposite of a euphemism)

Fun

An act of fraud or deception; a trick played on a person; a joke. Scottish (Orkney and Shetland) in later use

Overberg

Any region situated beyond mountains, esp. (with capital initial) such a region in the Western Cape or in KwaZulu-Natal

Dramaturgy

Approach that depicts human interaction as theatrical performances

aleck

a stupid person

Supplicated

ask or beg for something earnestly or humbly

Albumen

egg white, or the protein contained in it.

Noisome (NOY-sum)

1 : noxious, harmful 2 a : offensive to the senses and especially to the sense of smell b : highly obnoxious or objectionable Noisome sounds like it might be a synonym of noisy, but it's not. Something noisome is disgusting, offensive, or harmful, often in its smell. Noisome does not come from noise, but from the Middle English word noysome, which has the same meaning as noisome. Noysome was formed by combining the noun noy, which means "annoyance," with the adjectival suffix -some ("characterized by a (specified) thing, quality, state, or action"). Noy comes from Anglo-French anui, which also means "annoyance." As you may have already guessed, the English words annoy and annoyance are also related to noisome.

Melange

a mixture; medley.

Verve

energy, enthusiasm

Ape

imitate or mimic

Incognizance

lack of knowledge

Insipid

lacking flavor; dull; not at all stimulating

Intrigues

plots, schemes; fascinations

Mortifying

shameful; embarrassing

Esculent

suitable for use as food; edible.

Homonyms, Homophones, and Homographs

1 a- grammar : HOMOPHONE the homonyms there and their b- grammar : HOMOGRAPH The words lead, as in the metal, and lead, as in the verb, are homonyms. c- grammar : one of two or more words spelled and pronounced alike but different in meaning (such as the noun quail and the verb quail) Homographs = one of two or more words spelled alike but different in meaning or derivation or pronunciation (such as the bow of a ship, a bow and arrow)

有名 Example Sentence: 他的书很有名.

Famous (yǒumíng) Ex: His book is famous. Tāde shū hěn yǒumíng.

Mince

Make matters less severe.

Synoptic

Relating to a synopsis or summary; giving a general view

Solbberknocker

['An American football player with a particularly aggressive style of play.']

Celebrous

['Famous, well-known, renowned. Also: well-attended, crowded]

Guffaw

a loud and boisterous laugh

Inured

accustomed to accepting something undesirable

Rapacious

aggressively greedy or grasping

Droll

amusing in an odd or whimsical way

Benighted

being in a state of intellectual darkness; ignorant; unenlightened

Profiteering

charging an extra-high price for a good or service

Coda

concluding part of a literary or musical composition; something that summarizes or concludes

Complimentary

expressing a compliment; praising or approving

Reneged

go back on a promise, undertaking, or contract

Salacious

lascivious, lustful

Unseemly

not suitable; inappropriate or improper

Ephemera

things that are important or used for only a short period of time

Whitewash

to cancel defects, to give a falsely virtuous appearance to something

Disseminated

to disburse; to spread around

Equable

tranquil; steady; uniform

Emote (ih-MOHT)

to give expression to emotion especially in acting Emote is an example of what linguists call a back-formation—that is, a word formed by trimming down an existing word (in this case, emotion). As is sometimes the case with back-formations, emote has since its coinage in the early 20th century tended toward use that is less than entirely serious. It frequently appears in humorous or deprecating descriptions of the work of actors, and is similarly used to describe theatrical behavior by nonactors. Though a writer sometimes wants us to take someone's "emoting" seriously, a phrase like "expressing emotion" avoids the chance that we will hear some snideness in the writer's words.

Husband

to manage economically; to use sparingly

Happenstance

a chance happening or event

Genial (JEE-nee-ul)

1 : favorable to growth or comfort : mild 2 : marked by or freely expressing sympathy or friendliness 3 : displaying or marked by genius Genial derives from the Latin adjective genialis, meaning "connected with marriage." When genial was first adopted into English in the mid-16th century, it meant "of or relating to marriage," a sense that is now obsolete. Genialis was formed in Latin by combining the -alis suffix (meaning "of, relating to, or characterized by") with genius, meaning "a person's disposition or inclination." As you may have guessed, Latin genius is the ancestor of the English word genius, meaning "extraordinary intellectual power"—so it's logical enough that genial eventually developed a sense (possibly influenced by the German word genial) of "marked by very high intelligence."

书

Book 他坐车常看书。 He often reads books while taking the bus. shū Tā zuòchē cháng kànshū.

Saccharine

excessively sweet or sentimental

Torpid

inactive, sluggish, dull

Redress

to set right, remedy; relief from wrong or injury

Wag

a witty person; A joker

Fuliginous

1a: SOOTY b: OBSCURE, MURKY 2: having a dark or dusky color

Cur

1a: a mongrel or inferior dog b: a medium-sized hunting and working dog with a short coat that was developed in the southern U.S. and is sometimes considered to comprise one or more breeds 2: a surly or cowardly fellow

Lacuna (luh-KOO-nuh)

1 : a blank space or a missing part : gap; also : deficiency 2 : a small cavity, pit, or discontinuity in an anatomical structure Exploring the etymology of lacuna involves taking a plunge into the pit—or maybe a leap into the lacus (that's the Latin word for "lake"). Latin speakers modified lacus into lacuna and used it to mean "pit," "cleft," or "pool." English speakers borrowed the term in the 17th century. It is usually pluralized as lacunae; however, lacunas is an accepted variant plural. Another English word that traces its origin to lacuna is lagoon, which came to us by way of Italian and French.

Sciential (sye-EN-shul)

1 : relating to or producing knowledge or science 2 : having efficient knowledge : capable You might expect sciential, which derives from Latin scientia (meaning "knowledge"), to be used mostly in technical papers and descriptions of scientific experiments. In truth, however, sciential has long been a favorite of playwrights and poets. It appears in the works of Ben Jonson, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, and John Keats, among others. Keats made particularly lyrical use of it in his narrative poem "Lamia," which depicts a doomed love affair between the Greek sorceress Lamia and a human named Lycius. In the poem, Hermes transforms Lamia from a serpent into a beautiful woman, "Not one hour old, yet of sciential brain."

Commemorate (kuh-MEM-uh-rayt)

1 : to call to remembrance 2 : to mark by some ceremony or observation : observe 3 : to serve as a memorial of When you remember something, you are mindful of it. It's appropriate, therefore, that commemorate and other related memory-associated words (including memorable, memorial, remember, and memory itself) come from the Latin root memor, meaning "mindful." Some distant older relatives are Old English gemimor ("well-known"), Greek mermēra ("care"), and Sanskrit smarati ("he remembers"). English speakers have been marking the memory of important events with commemorate since the late 16th century.

Skulk

1 : to move in a stealthy or furtive manner 2 : to hide or conceal something (such as oneself) often out of cowardice or fear or with sinister intent Here's one for the word-puzzle lovers. Can you name three things that the word skulk has in common with all of these other words: booth, brink, cog, flit, kid, meek, scab, seem, and skull? If you noticed that all of the terms on that list have just one syllable, then you've got the first, and easiest, similarity, but the next two are likely to prove a little harder to guess. Do you give up? All of the words listed above are of Scandinavian origin and all were first recorded in English in the 13th century. As for skulk specifically, its closest known Scandinavian relative is the Norwegian dialect word skulka, which means "to lie in wait" or "to lurk."

Exoteric (ek-suh-TAIR-ik)

1 a : suitable to be imparted to the public b : belonging to the outer or less initiate circle 2 : relating to the outside : external Exoteric derives from Latin exotericus, which is itself from Greek exōterikos, meaning "external," and ultimately from exō, meaning "outside." Exō has a number of offspring in English, including exotic, exonerate, exorbitant, and the combining form exo- or ex- (as in exoskeleton and exobiology). The antonym of exoteric is esoteric, meaning "designed for or understood by the specially initiated alone"; it descends from the Greek word for "within," esō.

Wanton

ADJECTIVE - (of a cruel or violent action) deliberate and unprovoked. "sheer wanton vandalism" "wanton vandalism" - (especially of a woman) sexually immodest or promiscuous - growing profusely; luxuriant. "where wanton ivy twines" "wanton imagination" "wanton vegetation" NOUN (archaic) a sexually immodest or promiscuous woman. VERB archaic literary play; frolic. behave in a sexually immodest or promiscuous way.

Modishness

Being in or conforming to the prevailing or current fashion; stylish

Mendaciously

Dishonestly; deceitfully

Artless

Free of deceit or craftiness, natural, genuine; lacking skill or knowledge, crude, uncultured

Consanguineous

adj. Descended from the same parent or ancestor.

Fledgling

an inexperienced person, beginner; a young bird about to leave the nest; inexperienced, budding

Vituperation

bitter and abusive language

Prescient

having or showing knowledge of events before they take place

Gaiety

the state or quality of being lighthearted or cheerful

Exude

to give off; to emit; to radiate

Egregious

(adj.) conspicuous, standing out from the mass (used particularly in an unfavorable sense)

Fractious

(adj.) tending to be troublesome; unruly, quarrelsome, contrary; unpredictable

Expatiate

(v.) to expand on, write or talk at length or in detail; to move about freely

Surfeit (SER-fut)

1 : an overabundant supply : excess 2 : an intemperate or immoderate indulgence in something (such as food or drink) 3 : disgust caused by excess There is an abundance—you could almost say a surfeit—of English words that derive from the Latin facere, meaning "to do." The connection to facere is fairly obvious for words spelled with "fic," "fac," or "fec," such as sacrifice, benefaction, and infect. For words like stupefy (a modification of Latin stupefacere) and hacienda (originally, in Old Spanish and Latin, facienda) the facere factor is not so apparent. As for surfeit, the "c" was dropped along the path that led from Latin through Anglo-French, where facere became faire and sur- was added to make the verb surfaire, meaning "to overdo." It is the Anglo-French noun surfet ("excess"), however, that Middle English borrowed, eventually settling on the spelling surfeit.

Venal (VEE-nul)

1 : capable of being bought or obtained for money or other valuable consideration : purchasable; especially : open to corrupt influence and especially bribery : mercenary 2 : originating in, characterized by, or associated with corrupt bribery If you are given the choice between acts that are venal and those that are venial, go for the venial. Although the two words look and sound alike, they have very different meanings and histories. Venal demonstrates the adage that anything can be had if the price is high enough and the morals are low enough. That word originated with the Latin venum, which simply referred to something that was sold or for sale. Some of those transactions must have been rather shady because by the mid-1600s, venal had gained the sense of corruption it carries today. Venial sins, on the other hand, are pardonable, the kind that show that everyone makes mistakes sometimes. That forgiving term descends from venia, Latin for "favor," "indulgence," or "pardon."

Quixotic (kwikˈsädik)

1 : foolishly impractical especially in the pursuit of ideals; especially : marked by rash lofty romantic ideas or extravagantly chivalrous action 2 : capricious, unpredictable If you guessed that quixotic has something to do with Don Quixote, you're absolutely right. The hero of Miguel de Cervantes' 17th-century Spanish novel El ingenioso hidalgo don Quijote de la Mancha (in English "The Ingenious Hidalgo Don Quixote of La Mancha") didn't change the world by tilting at windmills, but he did leave a linguistic legacy in English. The adjective quixotic is based on his name and has been used to describe unrealistic idealists since at least the early 18th century. The novel has given English other words as well. Dulcinea, the name of Quixote's beloved, has come to mean "mistress" or "sweetheart," and rosinante, which is sometimes used to refer to an old, broken-down horse, comes from the name of the hero's less-than-gallant steed, Rocinante.

Sedulous

1 : involving or accomplished with careful perseverance 2 : diligent in application or pursuit No fooling—the word sedulous ultimately comes from Latin se dolus, which literally means "without guile." Those two words were eventually melded into one, sedulo, meaning "sincerely" or "diligently," and from that root developed Latin sedulus and English sedulous. Don't let the sed- beginning mislead you; sedulous is not related to words such as sedentary or sedate (those derive from the Latin verb sedēre, meaning "to sit"). Sedulous people are not the sedate or sedentary sort. They're the hardworking types Scottish author Samuel Smiles must have had in mind when he wrote in his 1859 book Self-Help, "Sedulous attention and painstaking industry always mark the true worker."

Timorous (TIM-uh-rus)

1 : of a timid disposition : fearful 2 : expressing or suggesting timidity Timid and timorous don't just have similar spellings and meanings; they are etymologically related as well. Both words ultimately derive from the Latin verb timēre, meaning "to fear." The immediate ancestor of timid is Latin timidus (with the same meaning as timid), whereas timorous traveled to Middle English by way of the Latin noun timor ("fear") and the Medieval Latin adjective timorosus. Timid may be the more common of the two words, but timorous is older. It first appeared in English in the mid-15th century; timid came on the scene a century later. Both words can mean "easily frightened" (as in "a timid mouse" or "a timorous child") as well as "indicating or characterized by fear" (as in "he gave a timid smile" or "she took a timorous step forward").

Numismatic (noo-muz-MAT-ik)

1 : of or relating to the study or collection of coins, tokens, and paper money 2 : of or relating to currency : monetary The first metal coins are believed to have been used as currency by the Lydians, a people of Asia Minor, during the 7th century B.C.E., and it is likely that folks began collecting coins not long after that. The name that we give to the collection of coins today is numismatics, a word that also encompasses the collection of paper money and of medals. The noun numismatics and the adjective numismatic came to English (via French numismatique) from Latin and Greek nomisma, meaning "coin." Nomisma in turn derives from the Greek verb nomizein ("to use") and ultimately from the noun nomos ("custom" or "law"). From these roots we also get numismatist, referring to a person who collects coins, medals, or paper money.

Evince

1 : to constitute outward evidence of 2 : to display clearly : reveal Let us conquer any uncertainty you may have about the history of evince. It derives from Latin evincere, meaning "to vanquish" or "to win a point," and can be further traced to vincere, Latin for "to conquer." In the early 1600s, evince was sometimes used in the senses "to subdue" or "to convict of error," meanings evincing the influence of its Latin ancestors. It was also sometimes used as a synonym of its cousin convince, but that sense is now obsolete. One early meaning, "to constitute evidence of," has hung on, however, and in the 1800s it was joined by another sense, "to reveal."

Vitiate (VISH-ee-ayt)

1 : to make faulty or defective : impair 2 : to debase in moral or aesthetic status 3 : to make ineffective Here's one for word puzzle lovers—and anyone allured by alliteration. The sentence "Vivian vituperated the vicious villain for valuing vice over virtue" contains three words that derive from the same Latin source as vitiate. Can you identify all three? If you picked vituperate (a verb meaning "to scold"), vicious, and vice, your puzzle prowess is beyond reproach. Like vitiate, all three descend from the Latin noun vitium, meaning "fault" or "vice."

Officious (uh-FISH-us)

1 : volunteering one's services where they are neither asked nor needed : meddlesome 2 : informal, unofficial Don't mistake officious for a rare synonym of official. Both words stem from the Latin noun officium (meaning "service" or "office"), but they have very different meanings. When the suffix -osus ("full of") was added to officium, Latin officiosus came into being, meaning "eager to serve, help, or perform a duty." When this adjective was borrowed into English as officious in the 15th century it described dutiful people and their actions. That use shifted a bit semantically to describe those eager to help or serve. By the late 16th century, however, officious was beginning to develop a negative sense describing a person who offers unwanted help. This pejorative sense has driven out the original "dutiful" and "eager to help" senses to become the predominant meaning of the word in modern English. Officious can also mean "of an informal or unauthorized nature," but that sense is not common.

Repertory; Repertoire (REP-er-twahr)

1 a : a list or supply of dramas, operas, pieces, or parts that a company or person is prepared to perform b : a supply of skills, devices, or expedients; broadly : amount, supply c : a list or supply of capabilities 2 a : the complete list or supply of dramas, operas, or musical works available for performance b : the complete list or supply of skills, devices, or ingredients used in a particular field, occupation, or practice The Late Latin noun repertorium, meaning "list," has given us two words that can be used to speak of the broad range of things that someone or something can do. One is repertory, perhaps most commonly known as a word for a company that presents several different plays, operas, or other works at one theater, or the theater where such works are performed. Repertoire, which comes from repertorium via French, once meant the same thing as repertory but later came to refer to the range of skills that a person has, such as the different pitches a baseball pitcher can throw or the particular dishes that are a chef's specialty.

Cogency; Cogent

1 a : appealing forcibly to the mind or reason : convincing b : pertinent, relevant 2 : having power to compel or constrain "Trained, knowledgeable agents make cogent suggestions ... that make sense to customers." It makes sense for us to include that comment from the president of a direct marketing consulting company because it provides such a nice opportunity to point out the etymological relationship between the words cogent and agent. Agent derives from the Latin verb agere, which means "to drive," "to lead," or "to act." Adding the prefix co- to agere gave Latin cogere, a word that literally means "to drive together"; that ancient term ultimately gave English cogent. Something that is cogent figuratively pulls together thoughts and ideas, and the cogency of an argument depends on the driving intellectual force behind it.

Audacious

1 a : intrepidly daring : adventurous b : recklessly bold : rash 2 : contemptuous of law, religion, or decorum : insolent 3 : marked by originality and verve Audacious first appeared in English in the mid-1500s. It was borrowed from the Middle French adjective audacieux, which was derived from the noun audace ("boldness, audacity"). Audace came from the Latin audacia, a derivative of the Latin root audac- ("bold"). Audac- is also the source of audacity, which appeared in Middle English (as audacite) in the 1400s. Audac- can be traced, by way of the Latin verb audēre ("to dare"), to the Latin adjective avidus ("eager" or "greedy"), which was also borrowed by English, either directly from Latin or via the French avide, to give us our adjective avid. Among the early adopters of audacious was William Shakespeare, who used the word seven times in his plays, as in Henry VI, Part 2, where Somerset addresses York with the lines, "I arrest thee, York, / Of capital treason 'gainst the King and crown. / Obey, audacious traitor, kneel for grace."

Refulgence (rih-FULL-junss)

: a radiant or resplendent quality or state : brilliance "The full bow of the crescent moon peeps above the plain and shoots its gleaming arrows far and wide, filling the earth with a faint refulgence, as the glow of a good man's deeds shines for a while upon his little world after his sun has set, lighting the fainthearted travellers who follow on towards a fuller dawn." So British author Sir Henry Rider Haggard described the light of the moon in King Solomon's Mines, published in 1885. Haggard's example reflects both the modern meaning and the history of refulgence. That word derives from Latin refulgēre, which means "to shine brightly" and which is itself a descendant of the verb fulgēre, meaning "to shine." Fulgēre also underlies effulgence, a shining synonym of refulgence.

Old and Middle English

Old English language, also called Anglo-Saxon, language spoken and written in England before 1100; it is the ancestor of Middle English [Middle English language, the vernacular spoken and written in England from about 1100 to about 1500, the descendant of the Old English language and the ancestor of Modern English.] and Modern English. Scholars place Old English in the Anglo-Frisian group of West Germanic languages. Four dialects of the Old English language are known: Northumbrian in northern England and southeastern Scotland; Mercian in central England; Kentish in southeastern England; and West Saxon in southern and southwestern England. Mercian and Northumbrian are often classed together as the Anglian dialects. Most extant Old English writings are in the West Saxon dialect; the first great period of literary activity occurred during the reign of King Alfred the Great in the 9th century. In contrast to Modern English, Old English had three genders (masculine, feminine, neuter) in the noun and adjective, and nouns, pronouns, and adjectives were inflected for case. Noun and adjective paradigms contained four cases—nominative, genitive, dative, and accusative—while pronouns also had forms for the instrumental case. Old English had a greater proportion of strong verbs (sometimes called irregular verbs in contemporary grammars) than does Modern English. Many verbs that were strong in Old English are weak (regular) verbs in Modern English (e.g., Old English helpan, present infinitive of the verb help; healp, past singular; hulpon, past plural; holpen, past participle versus Modern English help, helped, helped, helped, respectively).

West Germanic Languages

West Germanic languages, group of Germanic languages that developed in the region of the North Sea, Rhine-Weser, and Elbe. Out of the many local West Germanic dialects the following six modern standard languages have arisen: English, Frisian, Dutch (Netherlandic-Flemish), Afrikaans, German, and Yiddish.

Perforce

by force of circumstances English speakers borrowed par force from Anglo-French in the 14th century. Par meant "by" (from Latin per) and the Anglo-French word force had the same meaning as its English equivalent, which was already in use by then. At first, perforce meterm-484ant quite literally "by physical coercion." That meaning is no longer used today, but it was still prevalent in William Shakespeare's lifetime (1564-1616). "He rush'd into my house and took perforce my ring away," wrote the Bard in The Comedy of Errors. The "by force of circumstances" sense of perforce had also come into use by Shakespeare's day. In Henry IV, Part 2, we find "... your health; the which, if you give o'er to stormy passion, must perforce decay."

Fetid

foul-smelling; putrid

Licentious

immoral; unrestrained by society

Wiseacre (WYZE-ay-ker)

one who pretends to knowledge or cleverness; especially : smart aleck Given the spelling and definition of wiseacre, you might guess that the word derives from the sense of wise meaning "insolent" or "fresh"—the sense that also gives us wise guy, wisecrack, and wisenheimer. But, in fact, wiseacre came to English by a different route: it is derived from the Middle Dutch wijssegger, meaning "soothsayer." Wiseacre first appeared in English way back in the 16th century, while the "insolent" sense of wise and the words formed from it are products of the 19th century. The etymologies of wiseacre and wise are not completely distinct, however; the ancestors of wiseacre are loosely tied to the same Old English root that gave us wise.

Bedizen (or unbedizened)

ornamented or dressed in a showy, gaudy manner; to dress or adorn gaudily Bedizen doesn't have the flashy history you might expect—its roots lie in the rather quiet art of spinning thread. In times past, the spinning process began with the placement of fibers (such as flax) on an implement called a distaff; the fibers were then drawn out from the distaff and twisted into thread. Bedizen descends from the older, now obsolete, verb disen, which means "to dress a distaff with flax" and which came to English by way of Middle Dutch. The spelling of disen eventually became dizen, and its meaning expanded to cover the "dressing up" of things other than distaffs. In the mid-17th century, English speakers began using bedizen with the same meaning.

Fallow

plowed but not seeded; inactive; reddish-yellow; land left unseeded; to plow but not seed Inactive; unproductive

Burnished

polished, gilded

Asseverating (uh-SEV-uh-rayt)

to affirm or declare positively or earnestly In a 2001 essay in The New York Times, novelist Elmore Leonard warned writers against using any verb other than "said" to carry dialogue, describing how an encounter with asseverated once compelled him to stop reading in order to consult a dictionary. We don't think that interruption for dictionary consultation is a bad thing, but we do acknowledge that asseverate is little more than a fancy word meaning "to assert or declare." It was formed in Latin from the prefix ad- ("to, toward") and the verb severare, a relative of the adjective severus, meaning "serious or severe," and has been used in English since the 17th century. Nowadays, asseverate is found mostly in the works of authors long dead. It's also occasionally employed by those who like to show off their vocabularies.

Quittance

Discharge from debt

Miswants

Mistaken wants

Artful

skillful, clever, tricky

Fulgent (FULL-jint)

dazzlingly bright : radiant "The weary Sun betook himself to rest; — / Then issued Vesper from the fulgent west." That's how the appearance of the evening star in the glowing western sky at sunset looked to 19th-century poet William Wordsworth. Fulgent was a particularly apt choice to describe the radiant light of the sky at sunset. The word derives from the Latin verb fulgēre, meaning "to shine," a root which is itself akin to the Latin flagrare, meaning "to burn." English speakers have been using fulgent to depict resplendence since at least the 15th century.

Amiable

having or displaying a friendly and pleasant manner

Denizens

inhabitants or occupants

Hallowed

1 : holy, consecrated 2 : sacred, revered The adjective hallowed probably doesn't give you the shivers—or does it? Hallowed is the past participle of the verb hallow, a term that descends from the Middle English halowen. That word can be traced back to the Old English adjective hālig, meaning "holy." During the Middle Ages, All Hallows' Day was the name for what Christians now call All Saints' Day, and the evening that preceded All Hallows' Day was All Hallows' Eve or All Hallow Even—or, as we know it today, Halloween.

Senesecence (sih-NESS-unss)

1 : the state of being old : the process of becoming old 2 : the growth phase in a plant or plant part (such as a leaf) from full maturity to death Senescence can be traced back to Latin senex, meaning "old." Can you guess which other English words come from senex? Senile might (correctly) come to mind, as well as senior. But another one might surprise you: senate. This word for a legislative assembly dates back to ancient Rome, where the Senatus was originally a council of elders composed of the heads of patrician families. There's also the much rarer senectitude, which, like senescence, refers to the state of being old (specifically, to the final stage of the normal life span).

Galleys

1. HISTORICAL a low, flat ship with one or more sails and up to three banks of oars, chiefly used for warfare, trade, and piracy. a long rowboat used as a ship's boat. 2. the kitchen in a ship or aircraft. 3. a printer's proof in the form of long single-column strips, not in sheets or pages.

Alienist (AY-lee-uh-nist)

: psychiatrist Alienist looks and sounds like it should mean "someone who studies aliens," and in fact alienist and alien are related—both are ultimately derived from the Latin word alius, meaning "other." In the case of alienist, the etymological trail leads from Latin to the French noun aliéniste, which refers to a doctor who treats the mentally ill. Alienist first appeared in print in English about mid-19th century. It was preceded by the other alius descendants, alien (14th century) and alienate (used as a verb since the 15th century). Alienist is much rarer than psychiatrist these days, but at one time it was a common term.

Doggedly

persistent in effort; stubbornly tenacious

Viscosity

A liquid's resistance to flowing

Baying

Howling in a deep way, like a dog or wolf

Pastinaceous

Of the nature of or resembling that of a parsnip

Assonance

Repetition of a vowel sound within two or more words in close proximity

Aberrant

abnormal or deviant

Polemic

controversy; argument; verbal attack

Aquiline

curved; hooked; of or like an eagle; Ex. aquiline nose

Posh

elegant and fashionable

Jingoistic

fanatically patriotic

Mirthful

merry or amusing "mirthful laughter"

Undesigning

straightforward; sincere

Amalgamations

the action, process, or result of combining or uniting

Nadir

the lowest point of something

Antedated

to be of older date than; precede in time (ante-before).

Beseech

to beg, plead, implore

Becloud

to confuse; darken with clouds

Temper

to moderate; soften

Pray

used as a preface to polite requests or instructions "Pray, who was that student's doctoral adviser?"

Belletristic

written and regarded for aesthetic value rather than content

Rustic

(adj.) country-like; simple, plain; awkward; (n.) one who lives in the country

Redoubtable (rih-DOUT-uh-bul)

1 : causing fear or alarm : formidable 2 : illustrious, eminent; broadly : worthy of respect The word redoubtable is worthy of respect itself, if only for its longevity. It has been used in English for things that cause fear, dread, and apprehension since at least the 15th century and comes to us through Middle English from the Anglo-French verb reduter, meaning "to dread." That word comes ultimately from Latin dubitare, "to be in doubt" (by way of Anglo-French duter, douter, meaning "to doubt," also the source of English doubt). Things or people that are formidable and alarming can also inspire awe and even admiration, and it wasn't long before the meaning of redoubtable was extended from "formidable" to "illustrious" and "worthy of respect."

Impeccable

1 : free from fault or blame : flawless 2 : not capable of sinning or liable to sin The word impeccable has been used in English since the 16th century. It derives from the Latin word impeccabilis, a combination of the Latin prefix in-, meaning "not," and the verb peccare, meaning "to sin." Peccare has other descendants in English. There is peccadillo, meaning "a slight offense," and peccant, meaning "guilty of a moral offense" or simply "faulty." There is also peccavi, which comes from Latin, where it literally means "I have sinned"; in English the word functions as a noun meaning "an acknowledgment of sin."

Winsome

1 : generally pleasing and engaging often because of a childlike charm and innocence 2 : cheerful, lighthearted Winsome began as wynsum many centuries ago. It was formed from wynn, the Old English word for "joy" or "pleasure," and the suffix -sum, an older form of the -some we see today in many adjectives, such as awesome, irksome, and lonesome. Wynn later became win, meaning "pleasure," but that noun is now obsolete. We do, however, use another word that has a "pleasing" connection and is related, albeit distantly, to winsome. Winning ("tending to please or delight," as in "a winning smile" or "winning ways"), the present participle of the familiar verb win, is from Old English winnan, meaning "to struggle." Both winnan and wynn are thought to be related to Latin venus, which means, among other things, "charm."

Jocose (joh-Kohss)

1 : given to joking : merry 2 : characterized by joking : humorous When you need a word to describe something (or someone) that causes or is intended to cause laughter, you might pick jocose or a synonym such as humorous, witty, facetious, or jocular. Of those terms, humorous is the most generic and can be applied to anything that provokes laughter. Witty suggests cleverness and a quick mind, while facetious is a word for something that is not meant to be taken seriously. Jocose and jocular both imply a habitual waggishness and a fondness for joking.

Querulous (KWAIR-yuh-lus)

1 : habitually complaining 2 : fretful, whining English speakers have tagged fearful whiners querulous since late medieval times. The Middle English form of the word, querelose, was an adaptation of the Latin adjective, querulus, which in turn evolved from the Latin verb queri, meaning "to complain." Queri is also an ancestor of the English words quarrel and quarrelsome, but it isn't an ancestor of the noun query (meaning "question"). No need to complain that we're being coy; we're happy to let you know that query descends from the Latin verb quaerere, meaning "to ask."

Asunder (uh-SUN-der) [adverb or adjective]

1 : into parts 2 : apart from each other Asunder can be traced back to the Old English word sundor, meaning "apart." It is a relative of the verb sunder, which means "to break apart" or "to become parted, disunited, or severed." The "into parts" sense of asunder is often used in the phrase "tear asunder," which can be used both literally and figuratively (as in "a family torn asunder by tragedy"). The "apart from each other" sense can be found in the phrase "poles asunder," used to describe two things that are as vastly far apart as the poles of the Earth.

Trenchant (TREN-chunt)

1 : keen, sharp 2 : vigorously effective and articulate; also : caustic 3 a : sharply perceptive : penetrating b : clear-cut, distinct The word trenchant comes from the Anglo-French verb trencher, meaning "to cut," and may ultimately derive from the Vulgar Latin trinicare, meaning "to cut in three." Hence, a trenchant sword is one with a keen edge; a trenchant remark is one that cuts deep; and a trenchant observation is one that cuts to the heart of the matter. Relatives of trenchant in English include the noun trench ("a long ditch cut into the ground") and the verb retrench ("to cut down or pare away" or "to cut down expenses").

Orotund (OR-uh-tund)

1 : marked by fullness, strength, and clarity of sound : sonorous 2 : excessively elevated or inflated : pompous, bombastic The Latin roots of orotund are related to two more common English words—oral and rotund. Latin or- means "mouth," and rotundus means "round" or "circular." The Roman poet Horace joined forms of those Latin terms to create the phrase ore rotundo, literally meaning "with round mouth," and figuratively meaning "with well-turned speech." Ore rotundo was modified to orotund and adopted into English in the late 18th century. It can indicate either strength of delivery or inflated wording.

Biannual (bye-AN-yuh-wul)

1 : occurring twice a year 2 : occurring every two years When we describe something as biannual, we can mean either that it occurs twice a year or that it occurs once every two years. So how does someone know which particular meaning we have in mind? Well, unless we provide them with a contextual clue, they don't. Some people prefer to use semiannual to refer to something that occurs twice a year, reserving biannual for things that occur once every two years. This practice is hardly universal among English speakers, however, and biannual remains a potentially ambiguous word. Fortunately, English also provides us with biennial, a word that specifically refers to something that occurs every two years or that lasts or continues for two years.

Homogeneous (hoh-muh-JEEN-yus)

1 : of the same or a similar kind or nature 2 : of uniform structure or composition throughout Homogeneous, which derives from the Greek roots homos, meaning "same," and genos, meaning "kind," has been used in English since the early 1600s. The similar word homogenous (originally created for the science of genetics and used with the meaning "of, relating to, or derived from another individual of the same species") can also be a synonym of homogeneous. The words need not be used exclusively in scientific contexts—one can speak of, for example, "a homogenous/homogeneous community."

Parthian (PAR-thee-un)

1 : of, relating to, or characteristic of ancient Parthia or its people 2 : relating to, being, or having the effect of a shot fired while in real or feigned retreat The adjective Parthian, which often shows up in the phrase "Parthian shot," has its roots in the military strategies of the ancient Parthians. One of the fighting maneuvers of Parthian horsemen was to discharge arrows while in real or feigned retreat. The maneuver must have been memorable because "Parthian shot" continues to be used for a "parting shot," or a cutting remark made by a person who is leaving, many centuries after the dissolution of the Parthian empire.

Nebulous (NEB-yuh-lus)

1 : of, relating to, or resembling a nebula 2 : indistinct, vague Nebulous comes from the Latin word nebulosus, meaning "misty," which in turn comes from nebula, meaning "mist," "fog," or "cloud." In the 18th century, English speakers borrowed nebula and gave it a somewhat more specific meaning than the Latin version. In English, nebula refers to a cloud of gas or dust in deep space, or in less technical contexts, simply to a galaxy. Nebulous itself, when it doesn't have interstellar implications, usually means "cloudy" or "foggy" in a figurative sense. One's memory of a long-past event, for example, will often be nebulous; a teenager might give a nebulous recounting of an evening's events upon coming home; or a politician might make a campaign promise but give only a nebulous description of how he or she would fulfill it.

Demotic(dih-MAH-tik)

1 : of, relating to, or written in a simplified form of the ancient Egyptian hieratic writing 2 : of or relating to people and especially their speech : popular, common : "a demotic idiom" 3 : of or relating to the form of Modern Greek that is based on everyday speech You may recognize the root of demotic from words like democracy and demography. The source of these words is the Greek word dēmos, meaning "people." Demotic is often used of everyday forms of language (as opposed to literary or highbrow versions). It entered English in the early 1800s and originally designated a form of ancient Egyptian cursive script which by the 5th century BCE had come into use everywhere in Egypt for business and literary purposes (in contrast to the more complex, hieratic script retained by the clergy). Demotic has a newer specialized sense, as well, referring to a form of Modern Greek that is based on everyday speech and that since 1976 has been the official language of Greece.

Translucent (trans-LOO-sunt)

1 : permitting the passage of light: a : transmitting and diffusing light so that objects beyond cannot be seen clearly b : clear, transparent 2 : free from disguise or falseness Look closely and you will see the same group of three letters in translucent and elucidate, letting the family relationship between the two words shine through. Both terms descend from the Latin word lucēre, meaning "to shine." (Translucent is from lucēre plus trans-, which means "through.") When you elucidate something, you make it clear by explaining it in a way that can be easily understood—you shed light on it. Lucēre is also the root of another bright and shining English word, lucid, which can mean either "bright with light" or "clear and easy to understand."

Refection

1 : refreshment of mind, spirit, or body; especially : nourishment 2 a : the taking of refreshment b : food and drink together : repast Whether you sit down for nourishment or sustenance, aliment or pabulum, a meal or a repast, you are unlikely to encounter a shortage of English words for food or the partaking of food. Refection is just such a word. It was first borrowed by Middle English (as refeccioun) from Anglo-French refectiun, which in turn was derived from Latin refectio (meaning "refreshment" or "repairing"). Refectio comes from the verb reficere ("to remake, renew, or restore"), a combination of the prefix re- ("again") and the verb facere ("to make or do"). Refection is not only applied to food, however. It has been used to describe many means of restoring or refreshing one's body, and of mental and spiritual sustenance as well.

Exigent

1 : requiring immediate aid or action 2 : requiring or calling for much : demanding Exigent is a derivative of the Latin present participle of exigere, which means "to demand." Since its appearance in Middle English, the law has demanded a lot from exigent. It first served as a noun for a writ issued to summon a defendant to appear in court or else be outlawed. The noun's meaning was then extended to refer to other pressing or critical situations. Its adjectival sense followed and was called upon to testify that something was urgent and needed immediate aid or action. Nowadays, the adjective is seen frequently in legal contexts referring to "exigent circumstances," such as those used to justify a search by police without a warrant.

Demure (dih-MYOOR)

1 : reserved, modest 2 : affectedly modest, reserved, or serious : coy In the nearly four centuries that demure has been in use, its meaning has only shifted slightly. While it began solely as a descriptive term for people of quiet modesty and sedate reserve—those who don't draw attention to themselves, whether because of a shy nature or determined self-control—it came to be applied also to those whose modesty and reservation is more affectation than sincere expression. While demure sounds French and entered the language at a time when the native tongue of England was borrowing many French words from the Normans who gained control of the country after the Battle of Hastings in 1066, the etymological evidence requires that we exercise restraint: the word's origin remains obscure.

Instauration (in-staw-RAY-shun)

1 : restoration after decay, lapse, or dilapidation 2 : an act of instituting or establishing something Instauration first appeared in English in the early 16th century, a product of the Latin verb instaurare, meaning "to renew or restore." This same source gave us our verb store, by way of Middle English and Anglo-French. After instauration broke into English, the philosopher Francis Bacon began writing his Instauratio Magna, which translates to The Great Instauration. This uncompleted collection of works, which was written in Latin, calls for a restoration to a state of paradise on earth, but one in which humankind is enlightened by knowledge and truth.

Dearth

1 : scarcity that makes dear; specifically : famine2 : an inadequate supply : lack The facts about the history of the word dearth are quite simple: the word derives from the Middle English form derthe, which has the same meaning as our modern term. That Middle English form is assumed to have developed from an Old English form that was probably spelled dierth and was related to dēore, the Old English form that gave us the word dear. (Dear also once meant "scarce," but that sense of the word is now obsolete.) Dearth, in one form or another, has been used to describe things that are in short supply since at least the 13th century, when it often referred to a shortage of food.

Paucity

1 : smallness of number : fewness 2 : smallness of quantity : dearth Here's a little information about paucity: the word was first recorded in English in the 15th century, and it comes to us from the Latin paucitas ("smallness of number"), which is derived from the adjective paucus ("little"). The word's origin informs its use; paucity can be used to refer to a littleness of numbers (as in "a paucity of facts/studies") or quantity ("a paucity of evidence"), or one can use paucity when speaking of abstract concepts, as in "a paucity of experience/knowledge."

Brackish (BRACK-ish)

1 : somewhat salty 2 a : not appealing to the taste b : repulsive When the word brackish first appeared in English in the 1500s, it simply meant "salty," as did its Dutch parent brac. Then, as now, brackish water could simply be a mixture of saltwater and freshwater. Since that time, however, brackish has developed the additional meanings of "unpalatable" or "distasteful"—presumably because of the undrinkable quality of saltwater. "The brackish water that we drink / Creeps with a loathsome slime, / And the bitter bread they weigh in scales / Is full of chalk and lime." As this use from Oscar Wilde's "Ballad of Reading Gaol" illustrates, brackish water can also include things other than salt that make it unpleasant to drink.

Coin of the realm

1 : the legal money of a country 2 : something valued or used as if it were money in a particular sphere Coin of the realm gained currency in the English language during the 18th century as a term for the legal money of a country. Coin is ultimately from Latin cuneus, meaning "wedge," and entered English, via Anglo-French, in the 14th century with the meaning "cornerstone" or "quoin." By the latter part of that century, the word was being exchanged as a name for a device or impress stamped on flat pieces of metal used as money and, by extension, for the money itself. Realm entered English in the 13th century with the meaning "kingdom." Its spelling is an alteration of Old French reiame, which is based on the Latin word for "rule" or "government," regimen. In time, realm was generalized as the name for any sphere or domain, and coin of the realm came to signify something having value or influence in a particular sphere.

Misnomer (miss-NOH-mer)

1 : the misnaming of a person in a legal instrument 2 a : a use of a wrong or inappropriate name b : a wrong name or inappropriate designation What's in a name? Well, in some cases, a name will contain an error, a misunderstanding, or a mislabeling. Historians have long noted that the Holy Roman Empire was neither holy, Roman, nor an empire. The Battle of Bunker Hill was actually fought on Breed's Hill. And the Pennsylvania Dutch are in fact of German ancestry. For such cases, we have the term misnomer, which comes from the Anglo-French verb mesnomer ("to misname") and ultimately has its roots in nomen, the Latin word for "name."

Foible

1 : the part of a sword or foil blade between the middle and point 2 : a minor flaw or shortcoming in character or behavior : weakness In the 1600s, English speakers borrowed the French word foible to refer to the weakest part of the sword or foil, that part being the portion between the middle and the pointed tip. Despite the superficial resemblance, foible does not come from foil. The French foible was an adjective meaning "weak." (That French word, which is now obsolete, is derived from the same Old French term, feble, which gave us feeble.) The English foible soon came to be applied not only to weaknesses in blades but also to minor failings in character. It appeared in print with that use in the 17th century, and now the "character flaw" sense is considerably more popular than the original sword application.

Sleuth (SLOOTH)

1 : to act as a detective : search for information 2 : to search for and discover "They were the footprints of a gigantic hound!" Those canine tracks in Arthur Conan Doyle's The Hound of the Baskervilles set the great Sherlock Holmes sleuthing on the trail of a murderer. It was a case of art imitating etymology. When Middle English speakers first borrowed sleuth from Old Norse, the term referred to "the track of an animal or person." In Scotland, sleuthhound referred to a bloodhound used to hunt game or track down fugitives from justice. In 19th-century U.S. English, sleuthhound became an epithet for a detective and was soon shortened to sleuth. From there, it was only a short leap to turning sleuth into a verb describing what a sleuth does.

Assail (uh-SAIL)

1 : to attack violently : assault 2 : to encounter, undertake, or confront energetically 3 : to oppose, challenge, or criticize harshly and forcefully 4 a : to trouble or afflict in a manner that threatens to overwhelm b : to be perceived by (a person, a person's senses, etc.) in a strongly noticeable and usually unpleasant way Assail comes from an Anglo-French verb, assaillir, which itself traces back to the Latin verb assilire ("to leap upon"). Assilire combines the prefix ad- ("to, toward") with the Latin verb salire, meaning "to leap." (Salire is the root of a number of English words related to jumping or leaping, such as somersault and sally, as well as assault, a synonym of assail.) When assail was first used in the 13th century, it meant "to make a violent physical attack upon." By the early 15th century, English speakers were using the term to mean "to attack with words or arguments." Now the verb can refer to any kind of aggressive encounter, even if it is not necessarily violent or quarrelsome, as in "Upon entering the room, we were assailed by a horrible odor."

Exult

1 : to be extremely joyful : rejoice 2 obsolete : to leap for joy Exult leaped into English in the 16th century as a verb meaning "to leap for joy." George Chapman used it that way in a translation of Homer's Iliad: "To drive his chariot through the waves. From whirl pits every way the whales exulted under him," he interprets. This use of the verb skipped around in English until the 18th century, when it gracefully exited the everyday lexicon, leaving the verb's other meaning—"to be extremely joyful; to rejoice"—to stay the course. Exult springs from Latin saltare ("to leap"), also the source of saltation, a word for leaping as well as dancing. Another etymological cousin of exult is sally, meaning "to leap out" or "to set out," as in "After the storm passed, the hikers sallied forth."

Comprise (kum-PRYZE)

1 : to be made up of 2 : compose, constitute 3 : to include especially within a particular scope Comprise has undergone a substantial shift in usage since first appearing in English in the 15th century. For many years, grammarians insisted that the usage of comprise meaning "to be made up of," as in phrases like "a team comprising nine players," was correct, and that comprise meaning "to make up," as in phrases like "the nine players who comprise the team," was not. This disputed use is most common in the passive construction "to be comprised of," as in "a team comprised of nine players." Until relatively recently, this less-favored sense appeared mostly in scientific writing, but current evidence shows that it is now somewhat more common in general use than the word's other meanings.

Muse

1 : to become absorbed in thought; especially : to think about something carefully and thoroughly 2 archaic : wonder, marvel 3 : to think or say (something) in a thoughtful way The Muses were the nine Greek goddesses who presided over the arts, including music and literature. A shrine to the Muses was called in Latin a Museum (which came to mean "a place for learned occupation"). An artist or poet about to begin work would call on a particular Muse for inspiration, and a poem itself might begin with such a call; thus, Homer's Odyssey begins, "Sing to me of the man, Muse" (that is, of Odysseus). Today, a muse may be one's special creative spirit, but some artists and writers have also chosen living human beings to serve as their muses.

Chastise (chass-TYZE)

1 : to censure severely : castigate 2 : to inflict punishment on (as by whipping) Chastise, castigate, chasten, correct, and discipline all imply the infliction of a penalty in return for wrongdoing. Chastise often applies to verbal censure or denunciation ("she chastised her son for neglecting his studies"). Castigate usually implies a severe, typically public censure ("an editorial was published castigating the entire city council"), while chasten suggests any affliction or trial that leaves someone humbled or subdued ("chastened by a landslide election defeat"). Correct implies punishment aimed at reforming an offender ("the function of prison is to correct the wrongdoer"), and discipline is a punishment intended to bring a wrongdoer under control ("parents disciplining their children").

Cleave

1 : to divide (something) by or as if by a cutting blow : split 2 : to separate (something) into distinct parts and especially into groups having divergent views 3 : to subject to chemical cleavage 4 : to split especially along the grain 5 : to penetrate or pass through something by or as if by cutting Cleave has two homographs, each with a distinct origin. There is cleave meaning "to adhere firmly and closely or loyally and unwaveringly," as in "a family that cleaves to tradition"; that one is from Old English clifian, meaning "to adhere." And there is the cleave with meanings relating to splitting and dividing, which derives from Old English clēofan, meaning "to split." The two have slightly different inflections. The "split" cleave usually has cleaved as its past tense form, but cleft and clove are both in use as well; as its past participle form (the form that often occurs with have), cleaved is most common, but cleft and cloven are also used. The "adhere" cleave commonly has cleaved or clove (and occasionally clave) as its past tense and cleaved as its past participle.

Coruscate (KOR-uh-skayt)

1 : to give off or reflect light in bright beams or flashes : sparkle 2 : to be brilliant or showy in technique or style To help you gain a flash of recognition next time you see coruscate (or to prompt you when you need a brilliant synonym for sparkle), remember this bit of bright imagery by George Bernard Shaw, describing a centuries-old abbey: "O'er this north door a trace still lingers / Of how a Gothic craftsman's fingers / Could make stones creep like ivy stems / And tilings coruscate like gems." Or you could just remember that coruscate developed from Latin coruscare, which means "to flash." That word also gave us the noun coruscation ("glitter" or "sparkle") and the adjective coruscant ("shining" or "glittering").

Intercalate (in-TER-kuh-layt)

1 : to insert (something, such as a day) in a calendar 2 : to insert between or among existing elements or layers Intercalate was formed from the Latin prefix inter-, meaning "between" or "among," and the Latin verb calāre, meaning "to proclaim" or "to announce." It was originally associated with proclaiming the addition of a day or month in a calendar. An instance of intercalation occurred in the earliest versions of the Roman calendar, which originally consisted of 304 days and 10 months and was determined by the lunar cycle (the remaining 61.25 days of winter were apparently ignored). According to some Roman legends, it was Numa Pompilius, the second king of Rome, who intercalated the months January and February. Eventually, the word's use broadened to include other instances of introducing new elements or layers into a preexisting system.

Attenuate (uh-TEN-yuh-wayt)

1 : to lessen the amount, force, magnitude, or value of : weaken 2 : to reduce the severity, virulence, or vitality of 3 : to make thin or slender 4 : to make thin in consistency : rarefy 5 : to become thin, fine, or less Attenuate ultimately comes from a combining of the Latin prefix ad-, meaning "to" or "toward," and tenuis, meaning "thin," a pedigree that is in keeping with the English word's current meanings, which all have to do with literal or metaphorical thinning. The word is most common in technical contexts, where it often implies the reduction or weakening of something by physical or chemical means. You can attenuate wire by drawing it through successively smaller holes, for example, or attenuate gold by hammering it into thin sheets. Current evidence dates the term to the 16th century, in which we find many references to bodily humors in need of being attenuated; modern medicine prefers to use the word in reference to procedures that weaken a pathogen or reduce the severity of a disease.

Incarcerate (in-KAHR-suh-rayt)

1 : to put in prison 2 : to subject to confinement A criminal sentenced to incarceration may wish their debt to society could be canceled; such a wistful felon might be surprised to learn that incarcerate and cancel are related. Incarcerate comes from incarcerare, a Latin verb meaning "to imprison." That Latin root comes from carcer, meaning "prison." Etymologists think that cancel probably got its start when the spelling of carcer was modified to cancer, which means "lattice" in Latin—an early meaning of cancel in English was "to mark (a passage) for deletion with lines crossed like a lattice." Aside from its literal meaning, incarcerate has a figurative application meaning "to subject to confinement," as in "people incarcerated in their obsessions."

Brandish

1 : to shake or wave (something, such as a weapon) menacingly 2 : to exhibit in an ostentatious or aggressive manner Often when we encounter the word brandish in print, it is soon followed by a word for a weapon, such as knife or handgun. That's appropriate given the word's etymology: it is a descendant of the Middle English braundisshen, which derives, via brandiss- (a stem of the Anglo-French brandir), from brant, braund, meaning "sword." Nowadays you can brandish things other than weapons, however. The figurative usage of brandish rose alongside its earliest literal usage in the 14th century. When you brandish something that isn't a weapon (such as a sign), you are in effect waving it in someone's face so that it cannot be overlooked.

Expunge (ik-spunj)

1 : to strike out, obliterate, or mark for deletion 2 : to efface completely : destroy 3 : to eliminate from one's consciousness In medieval and Renaissance manuscripts, a series of dots was used to mark mistakes or to label material that should be deleted from a text, and those deletion dots can help you remember the history of expunge. They were known as puncta delentia. The puncta part of the name derives from the Latin verb pungere, which can be translated as "to prick or sting" (and you can imagine that a scribe may have felt stung when their mistakes were so punctuated in a manuscript). Pungere is also an ancestor of expunge, as well as a parent of other dotted, pointed, or stinging terms such as punctuate, compunction, poignant, puncture, and pungent.

Prescind (prih-SIND)

1 : to withdraw one's attention 2 : to detach for purposes of thought Prescind derives from the Latin verb praescindere, which means "to cut off in front." Praescindere, in turn, was formed by combining prae- ("before") and scindere ("to cut" or "to split"). So it should come as no surprise that when prescind was first used during the 17th century, it referred to "cutting off" one's attention from a subject. An earlier (now archaic) sense was even clearer about the etymological origins of the word, with the meaning "to cut short, off, or away" or "to sever." Other descendants of scindere include rescind ("to take back or make void") and the rare scissile ("capable of being cut").

Kaput

1 : utterly finished, defeated, or destroyed 2 : unable to function : useless 3 : hopelessly outmoded Kaput originated with a card game called piquet that has been popular in France for centuries. French players originally used the term capot to describe both big winners and big losers in piquet. To win all twelve tricks in a hand was called "faire capot" ("to make capot"), but to lose them all was known as "être capot" ("to be capot"). German speakers adopted capot, but respelled it kaputt, and used it only for losers. When English speakers borrowed the word from German, they started using kaput for things that were broken, useless, or destroyed.

Métier (MET-yay)

1 : vocation, trade 2 : an area of activity in which one excels : forte The words métier, employment, occupation, and calling all perform similar functions in English, though each word gets the job done in its own way. These hardworking synonyms can all refer to a specific sustained activity, especially an activity engaged in to earn a living, but these words also have slightly different shades of meaning. Employment implies simply that one was hired and is being paid by an employer, whereas occupation usually suggests special training, and calling generally applies to an occupation viewed as a vocation or profession. Métier, a French borrowing acquired by English speakers in the 18th century, typically implies a calling for which one feels especially fitted.

Encumber; Encumbrance (in-KUM-ber)

1 : weigh down, burden 2 : to impede or hamper the function or activity of : hinder 3 : to burden with a legal claim (such as a mortgage) In Old French, the noun combre meant a defensive obstacle formed by felled trees with sharpened branches facing the enemy. Later, in Middle French, combre referred to a barrier, similar to a dam or weir, constructed in the bed of a river to hold back fish or protect the banks. That notion of holding back is what informs our verb encumber. One can be physically encumbered (as by a heavy load or severe weather) or figuratively (as by bureaucratic restrictions). Combre also gives us the adjectives cumbersome and cumbrous, both meaning "awkward or difficult to handle."

Fusty (FUSS-tee)

1 British : impaired by age or dampness : moldy 2 : saturated with dust and stale odors : musty 3 : rigidly old-fashioned or reactionary Fusty probably derives from the Middle English word foist, meaning "wine cask," which in turn traces to the Medieval Latin word fustis, meaning "tree trunk" or "wood." So how did fusty end up meaning "old-fashioned"? Originally, it described wine that had gotten stale from sitting in the cask for too long; fusty literally meant that the wine had the "taste of the cask." Eventually any stale food, especially damp or moldy food, was called "fusty." Those damp and moldy connotations were later applied to musty places, and later still to anything that had lost its freshness and interest—that is, to anything old-fashioned.

Billion (BILL-yun)

1 US : a number equal to 1,000 million; also, British : a thousand milliard 2 : a very large number How much is a billion? It might depend on whom you ask. Billion was borrowed from French in the late 1600s to indicate the number one million raised to the power of two, or a million million—a number represented by a 1 followed by 12 zeros. However, the French later changed their naming conventions so that a billion became a thousand million (a 1 followed by 9 zeros) and a trillion became a thousand thousand million (or a million million, the old billion). The French have since returned to the older system, but it was this new system that was adopted by American English speakers in the 1800s. In Britain, the newer system has seen increasing use since the 1950s, but the older sense is still sometimes used there as well.

Totem (TOH-tum)

1 a : an object (such as an animal or plant) serving as the emblem of a family or clan and often as a reminder of its ancestry; also : a usually carved or painted representation of such an object b : a family or clan identified by a common totemic object 2 : one that serves as an emblem or revered symbol Totem comes to us from Ojibwa, an Algonquian language spoken by an American Indian people from the regions around Lake Superior. The most basic form of the word in Ojibwa is believed to be ote, but 18th-century English speakers encountered it as ototeman (meaning "his totem"), which became our word totem. In its most specific sense, totem refers to an emblematic depiction of an animal or plant that gives a family or clan its name and that often serves as a reminder of its ancestry. The term is also used broadly for any person or thing having particular emblematic or symbolic importance. The related adjective totemic describes something that serves as a totem, that depicts totems ("totemic basketry," for example), or that has the nature of a totem.

Callous (KAL-us)

1 a : being hardened and thickened b : having calluses 2 a : feeling no emotion b : feeling or showing no sympathy for others : hard-hearted A callus is a hard, thickened area of skin that develops usually from friction or irritation over time. Such a hardened area often leaves one less sensitive to the touch, so it's no surprise that the adjective callous, in addition to describing skin that is hard and thick, can also be used as a synonym for harsh or insensitive. Both callus and callous derive via Middle English from Latin. The figurative sense of callous entered English almost 300 years after the literal sense, and Robert Louis Stevenson used it aptly when he wrote, in Treasure Island, "But, indeed, from what I saw, all these buccaneers were as callous as the sea they sailed on."

Ad hoc

1 a : concerned with a particular end or purpose b : formed or used for specific or immediate problems or needs 2 : fashioned from whatever is immediately available : improvised In Latin, ad hoc literally means "for this." That historical meaning is clearly reflected in contemporary English uses of ad hoc—anything that is ad hoc can be thought of as existing "for this purpose only." For example, an "ad hoc committee" is generally authorized to look into a single matter of limited scope, not to pursue any issue of interest. Ad hoc can also be used as an adverb meaning "for the case at hand apart from other applications," as in "a commission created ad hoc." The adverb is older: it has been used in English since the mid-17th century, whereas the adjective did not become part of the language until about the mid-19th century.

Garnish (GAHR-nish)

1 a : decorate, embellish b : to add decorative or savory touches to (food or drink) 2 : to equip with accessories : furnish 3 : garnishee Although we now mostly garnish food, the general application of the "decorate" meaning is older. The link between embellishing an object or space and adding a little parsley to a plate isn't too hard to see, but how does the verb's sense of "garnishee," which refers to the taking of debtors' wages, fit in? The answer lies in the word's Anglo-French root, garnir, which means "to give notice, warning, or legal summons" in addition to "to equip or decorate." Before wages were garnished, the debtor would be served with a legal summons or warning. The legal sense of garnish now chiefly implies the taking of the wages, but it is rooted in the action of furnishing the warning.

Braggadocio (brag-uh-DOH-see-oh)

1 a : empty boasting b : arrogant pretension : cockiness 2 : a person given to arrogant boasting : braggart Though Braggadocio is not as well-known as other fictional characters like Pollyanna, the Grinch, or Scrooge, in lexicography he holds a special place next to them as one of the many characters whose name has become an established word in English. The English poet Edmund Spenser originally created Braggadocio as a personification of boasting in his epic poem The Faerie Queene. As early as 1594, about four years after the poem was published, English speakers began using the name as a general term for any blustering blowhard.

Sinuous (SIN-yuh-wus)

1 a : of a serpentine or wavy form : winding b : marked by strong lithe movements 2 : intricate, complex Although it probably makes you think more of snakes than head colds, sinuous is etymologically more like sinus than serpent. Sinuous and sinus both derive from the Latin noun sinus, which means "curve, fold, or hollow." Other sinus descendants include insinuate ("to impart or suggest in an artful or indirect way") and two terms you might remember from math class: sine and cosine. In English, sinus is the oldest of these words; it entered the language in the 1400s. Insinuate appeared next, in the early 1500s, and was followed by sinuous and sine in the latter half of the 1500s, and cosine in the 1600s. Serpent, by the way, entered English in the 13th century and comes from the Latin verb serpere, meaning "to creep."

Amaranthine (am-uh-RANTH-un)

1 a : of or relating to an amaranth [any of a large genus (Amaranthus of the family Amaranthaceae, the amaranth family) of coarse annual herbs with clusters of small green, dark pink, red, or purplish flowers and including forms cultivated as food crops and various pigweeds] b : undying 2 : of a pinkish or rosy red color Long ago poets conceived of a flower that did not fade and christened it amaranth. The appellation is rooted in the Greek word amarantos, meaning "immortal" or "unfading," and amarantus, the Latin name of a flower (probably Celosia cristata). The word amaranthine emerged as an adjective of the imaginary flower and subsequently of anything possessing its undying quality. Amaranth also names a real plant (genus Amaranthus), an herb that some consider a weed and others grow for its colorful leaves and spikes of flowers.

Arrogate (AIR-uh-gayt)

1 a : to claim or seize without justification b : to make undue claims to having : assume 2 : to claim on behalf of another : ascribe Arrogate comes from Latin arrogatus, a past participle of the verb arrogare, which means "to appropriate to one's self." The Latin verb, in turn, was formed from the prefix ad- ("to" or "toward") and the verb rogare ("to ask"). You may have noticed that arrogate is similar to the more familiar arrogant. And there is, in fact, a relationship between the two words. Arrogant comes from Latin arrogant- or arrogans, the present participle of arrogare. Arrogant is often applied to that sense of superiority which comes from someone claiming (or arrogating) more consideration than is due to that person's position, dignity, or power.

Divest (dye-VEST)

1 a : to deprive or dispossess especially of property, authority, or title b : to undress or strip especially of clothing, ornament, or equipment c : rid, free 2 : to take away from a person Divest is one of many English words that come from the Latin verb vestire ("to clothe") and ultimately from the noun vestis ("clothing, garment"). Others include vest, vestment, invest, and travesty. Divest and its older form devest can mean "to unclothe" or "to remove the clothing of," but the word had broader applications even when it was first being used in the 16th and 17th centuries. In the opening scene of Shakespeare's King Lear, Lear uses the term to mean "rid oneself of" or "put aside": "Tell me, my daughters (Since now we will divest us both of rule, Interest of territory, cares of state), Which of you shall we say doth love us most?" In addition to clothing, one can be divested of power, authority, possessions, or burdens.

Vouchsafe

1 a : to grant or furnish often in a gracious or condescending manner b : to give by way of reply 2 : to grant as a privilege or special favor Shakespeare fans are well acquainted with vouchsafe, which in its Middle English form vouchen sauf meant "to grant, consent, or deign." The word, which was borrowed with its present meaning from Anglo-French in the 14th century, pops up fairly frequently in the Bard's work—60 times, to be exact. "Vouchsafe me yet your picture for my love," beseeches Proteus of Silvia in The Two Gentlemen of Verona. "Vouchsafe me raiment, bed, and food," King Lear begs his daughter Regan. But you needn't turn to Shakespeare to find vouchsafe. As illustrated by our examples, today's writers also find it to be a perfectly useful word.

Emulate (EM-yuh-layt)

1 a : to strive to equal or excel b : imitate; especially : to imitate by means of hardware or software that permits programs written for one computer to be run on another computer 2 : to equal or approach equality with If imitation really is the sincerest form of flattery, then past speakers of English clearly had a great admiration for the Latin language. The verb emulate joined the ranks of Latin-derived English terms in the 16th century. It comes from aemulus, a Latin term for "rivaling" or "envious." Two related adjectives—emulate and emulous—appeared within a half-century of the verb emulate. Both mean "striving to emulate; marked by a desire to imitate or rival" or sometimes "jealous," but emulous is rare these days and the adjective emulate is obsolete. The latter did have a brief moment of glory, however, when William Shakespeare used it in Hamlet: "Our last king, Whose image even but now appear'd to us, Was, as you know, by Fortinbras of Norway, Thereto prick'd on by a most emulate pride, Dar'd to the combat...."

Devious

1 a : wandering, roundabout b : moving without a fixed course : errant 2 : out-of-the-way, remote 3 a : deviating from a right, accepted, or common course b : not straightforward : cunning; also : deceptive If you think someone devious has lost their way, you're right, etymologically speaking—the word derives from the Latin adjective devius, itself formed from the prefix de- ("from" or "away") and the noun via ("way"). When devious was first used in the 16th century, it implied a literal wandering off the way, suggesting something that meandered or had no fixed course (as in "a devious route" or "devious breezes"). Relatively quickly, however, the word came to describe someone or something that had left the right path metaphorically rather than literally, or to describe deceitful rather than straightforward behavior.

Mogul

1 capitalized Mogul : an Indian Muslim of or descended from one of several conquering groups of Mongol, Turkish, and Persian origin; especially : Great Mogul 2 : a great personage : magnate Started by Bābur, a descendant of Genghis Khan, the Muslim Mogul dynasty ruled much of India from the early 16th century to the mid-18th century. The Moguls (whose name is also spelled Moghul or Mughal) were known for their talented and powerful rulers (called "Great Moguls"), so it's no surprise that in English the word mogul came to denote a powerful person, as in today's familiar references to "media moguls." Skiers might wonder if such power moguls have anything to do with the name they use for a bump in a ski run, but that hilly homonym has nothing to do with Asian Mogul dynasties. We picked up the skier's mogul from German dialect, from a word that is probably related to the Viennese mugl, meaning "small hill."

Abnegate

1 formal : deny, renounce 2 formal : surrender, relinquish There's no denying that the Latin root negāre has given English some useful words. That verb, which means "to deny," is the source of the noun abnegation, a synonym of denial. In time, people concluded that if there was a noun abnegation, there ought to be a related verb abnegate, and so they created one by a process called back-formation (that's the process of trimming an affix off a long word to make a shorter one). Other English offspring of negāre are deny, negate, and renegade.

Behemoth (bih-HEE-muth)

1 often capitalized : a mighty animal described in Job 40:15-24 as an example of the power of God 2 : something of monstrous size, power, or appearance The original behemoth is biblical; it designates a mysterious river-dwelling beast in the Book of Job. Based on that description, scholars have concluded that the biblical behemoth was probably inspired by a hippopotamus, but details about the creature's exact nature are vague. The word first passed from Hebrew into Late Latin, where, according to English poet and monk John Lydgate, writing in 1430, it "playne expresse[d] a beast rude full of cursednesse." In English, behemoth was eventually applied more generally to anything large and powerful.

Risorgimento (ree-zor-jih-MEN-toh)

1 often capitalized : the 19th century movement for Italian political unity 2 : a time of renewal or renaissance : revival During the period of the French Revolution and Napoleonic wars (1796-1815), the French dominated Italy and introduced many new reforms to the Italian states. After the wars, the states were restored to their former rulers, the Austrians, and took on a conservative character. In response, a number of secret societies arose as part of an ideological and literary movement in support of a united Italy free of foreign domination. This movement was given the name Risorgimento, which literally translates from Italian as "rising again." Although most modern use of the term still refers to this movement, the word also has broader application in English, referring to revivals or renewals of any sort. This second sense is occasionally capitalized in a nod to the earlier use.

Holy writ (HOH-lee-RIT)

1 often capitalized Holy Writ : Bible 2 : a writing or utterance having unquestionable authority Holy Writ has been used in English as a synonym for Bible for more than a thousand years. The term traces to the Venerable Bede, an 8th-century Anglo-Saxon scholar, historian, and theologian who wrote a history of England in which he dated events from the birth of Christ. Bede's history was translated from Latin to English around the year 900, and it is in that translated text that we find the earliest evidence for holy writ. William Shakespeare used holy writ in Othello: "Trifles light as air are to the jealous confirmations strong as proofs of holy writ." And Alexander Pope used it in his Wife of Bath: "And close the sermon, as beseem'd his wit, with some grave sentence out of holy writ."

Weltschmerz (VELT-shmairts)

1 often capitalized Weltschmerz : mental depression or apathy caused by comparison of the actual state of the world with an ideal state 2 often capitalized Weltschmerz : a mood of sentimental sadness The word weltschmerz initially came into being as a by-product of the European Romanticism movement of the late 18th and early 19th centuries. A combining of the German words for "world" (Welt) and "pain" (Schmerz), weltschmerz aptly captures the melancholy and pessimism that often characterized the artistic expressions of the era. The term was used in German by the Romantic author Jean Paul (pseudonym of Johann Paul Friedrich Richter) in his 1827 novel Selina, but it wasn't adopted into English until the middle of the 19th century.

Pyrotechnics

1 singular or plural in construction : the art of making or the manufacture and use of fireworks 2 a : a display of fireworks b : a spectacular display (as of extreme virtuosity) The use of military fireworks in elaborate celebrations of war and peace is an ancient Chinese custom, but our term for the making and launching of fireworks is a product of the 17th and 18th centuries. Pyrotechnics and the earlier adjective pyrotechnic derive via French from the Greek nouns pyr ("fire") and techne ("art"). In pyr one can see such fiery relatives as pyromania, the term for an irresistible impulse to start fires, as well as pyrite, the mineral also known as fool's gold. (That word also has an obsolete meaning, in the form pyrites, referring to a stone used for striking fire.) Like fireworks, pyrotechnics also has an extended figurative usage, referring to any kind of dazzling display or performance.

Eminence

1. - fame or recognized superiority, especially within a particular sphere or profession. "her eminence in cinematography" - used to emphasize the presence of a positive quality. "the guitar's eminent suitability for recording studio work" 2. a piece of rising ground. "an eminence commanding the Emme River"

Ubiquitous (yoo-BIK-wuh-tuss)

: existing or being everywhere at the same time : constantly encountered : widespread Ubiquitous comes to us from the noun ubiquity, meaning "presence everywhere or in many places simultaneously." Both words are ultimately derived from the Latin word for "everywhere," which is ubique. Ubiquitous, which has often been used with a touch of exaggeration to describe those things that it seems like you can't go a day without encountering, has become a more widespread and popular word than ubiquity. It may not quite be ubiquitous, but if you keep your eyes and ears open, you're apt to encounter the word ubiquitous quite a bit.

Lorn (LORN)

: left alone and forlorn : desolate, forsaken Lorn and forlorn are synonyms that mean "desolate" or "forsaken." The similarity in form and meaning of the two words is hardly a coincidence. Lorn comes down to us from loren, the Middle English past participle of the verb lesen ("to lose"), itself a descendant of the Old English lēosan. Similarly, forlorn comes from the Middle English forloren, a descendant of the Old English verb forlēosan, which also means "to lose." The for- in forlorn is an archaic prefix meaning, among other things, "completely," "excessively," or "to exhaustion." Nowadays, forlorn is considerably more common than lorn. Lorn does, however, appear as the second element in the compound lovelorn ("bereft of love or of a lover").

Superjacent

: lying above or upon : overlying You're probably familiar with adjacent, and if you guessed that it's a relative of superjacent, you're right. Both derive from the Latin verb jacēre, meaning "to lie." Adjacent, which is both the more popular and the earlier word (it first appeared in print in the 15th century, while superjacent turned up in the late 16th century), comes from jacēre and the prefix ad-, meaning "near." Superjacent, on the other hand, was formed by combining jacēre with the prefix super-, meaning "over," "above," or "on top of." In case you were wondering, jacēre descendants are also available for other possible configurations: subjacent means "lying below," and circumjacent means "lying near on all sides" or "surrounding."

Fiduciary (fuh-DOO-shee-air-ee)

: of, relating to, or involving a confidence or trust: such as a : held or founded in trust or confidence b : holding in trust c : depending on public confidence for value or currency Fiduciary relationships often concern money, but the word fiduciary does not, in and of itself, suggest financial matters. Rather, fiduciary applies to any situation in which one person justifiably places confidence and trust in someone else and seeks that person's help or advice in some matter. The attorney-client relationship is a fiduciary one, for example, because the client trusts the attorney to act in the best interest of the client at all times. Fiduciary can also be used as a noun for the person who acts in a fiduciary capacity, and fiduciarily or fiducially can be called upon if you are in need of an adverb. The words are all faithful to their origin: Latin fīdere, which means "to trust."

Canons

A body of principles, rules, standards, or norms by which something is judged.

Pathos

Appeal to emotion

Conjectural

Based on guesswork or incomplete evidence

Vernacular

Everyday language of ordinary people

The Latin 'e' Prefix

The prefix 'e' is Latin; it signifies the absence of something. (Ex. Edentulous, meaning 'without teeth')

Gauzy

Transparently thin or light; thin and translucent

Antidiluvian

antiquated; extremely ancient

Baneful

causing ruin; harmful; pernicious

Sangfroid

composure or coolness, especially in trying circumstances

Susurrous (soo-SUR-us)

full of whispering sounds Susurrous derives from the Latin noun susurrus, meaning "a hum" or "a whisper," and may be a distant relative of swarm (think of the collective hum of a beehive). Susurrus is itself an English noun with the meaning "a whispering or rustling sound" (Stephen King provides us with the example of "a violent susurrus of air"). Both the noun and the adjective (note that the two are spelled differently) are products of the 19th century, but they were preceded by the noun susurration, which in the 15th century originally meant "malicious whispering or rumor." Today susurrous is used to describe any kind of sound that resembles a whisper: a light breeze through a tree, perhaps, or the murmurs of intrigued theatergoers.

Manacled

handcuffed; shackled fetter (a person or a part of the body) with manacles. "his hands were manacled behind his back"

Dispassionate

impartial; calm, free from emotion

Mimetic

mimic, copy

Incorrigable

not able to be corrected; beyond control

Memorabilia

objects collected over a period of time that recall particular events

Campestral (kam-PESS-trul)

of or relating to fields or open country : rural Scamper across an open field, and then, while catching your breath, ponder this: scamper and campestral both ultimately derive from the Latin noun campus, meaning "field" or "plain." Latin campester is the adjective that means "pertaining to a campus." In ancient Rome, a campus was a place for games, athletic practice, and military drills. Scamper probably started with a military association as well (it is assumed to have evolved from an unattested Vulgar Latin verb, excampare, meaning "to decamp"). In English, campestral took on an exclusively rural aspect upon its introduction in the late 17th century, while campus, you might say, became mainly academic.

Belle epoque (BEL-ay-POK)

often capitalized Belle Epoque : a period of high artistic or cultural development; especially : such a period in fin de siècle France In the years before World War I, France experienced a period of economic growth that produced a wealth of artistic and cultural developments. That era has been described as excessive, glittering, gaudy, and extravagant, but the tumultuous days of war that followed it inspired the French to call that productive period la belle époque—literally, "the beautiful age." The term belle epoque soon found its way into English, where it came to be used to refer not only to the glory days of late 19th-century France, but to any similarly luxurious period. It is now used to more elegantly convey the sentiments of another nostalgic expression, "the good old days."

Abettor

one who encourages or assists in the achievement of a purpose

Dissolution

the breaking up into parts; termination of a legal bond or contract

Apogee

the point in an orbit most distant from the body being orbited; the highest point

Nonce

the present, or immediate, occasion or purpose; a word created for an occasion to solve an immediate problem of technical communication

Solemnity

the state or quality of being serious and dignified

Heedlessness

the trait of forgetting or ignoring your responsibilities

Adorn

to add beauty; to decorate

Convoke (kun-VOHK)

to call together to a meeting The Latin noun vox ("voice") and verb vocare ("to call") have given rise to many English words, including convoke. Other English descendants of those roots are usually spelled with voc and have to do with speaking or calling. Thus, a vocation is a special calling to a type of work; an evocative sight or smell calls forth memories and feelings; and a vocal ensemble is a singing group. Provoke, irrevocable, equivocate, and vociferous are a few of the other descendants of vox and vocare. The related noun convocation refers to a group of people who have been called together.

Pique

to cause resentment; to provoke

Excoriate

to criticize severely

Hachure (ha-SHUR)

to denote surfaces in relief (as on a map) by shading with short lines drawn in the direction of slope Hachuring is an old map-drawing technique that was largely replaced in later years by the use of contour lines, or lines that connect points of similar elevation. The word hachure, which can also be a noun referring to one of the short lines used in hachuring, comes from the French hacher, meaning "to chop up" or "hash." This French word is also the source of the verbs hash, which can mean "to chop (food, such as meat and potatoes) into small pieces," among other meanings, and hatch, meaning "to inlay with narrow bands of distinguishable material" and "to mark (something, such as a drawing or engraving) with fine closely spaced lines."

Pilloried

to expose to public derision, ridicule, or abuse

Carp (KAHRP)

to find fault or complain querulously You might guess that today's word is a descendant of the noun carp, referring to a type of fish. That's a reasonable speculation, but the words are unrelated. Both entered the English language in the 15th century but from different sources. Whereas the fish's name traces back to Latin carpa, the verb is of Scandinavian origin: it may be related to the Icelandic verb karpa, meaning "to dispute" or "to wrangle," and beyond that perhaps to Old Norse karp, meaning "boasting" or "arrogance." There is a noun carp that is related to the Scandinavian verb, however: it means "complaint," and it dates to that same century.

Divulge (dih-VULJ)

to make known (something, such as a secret) It isn't vulgar to make known the roots of divulge. The preceding sentence contains two hints about the origins of the word. Divulge was borrowed into Middle English in the 15th century from Latin divulgare, a word that combines the prefix dis-, meaning "apart" or "in different directions," with vulgare, meaning "to make known." Vulgare, in turn, derives from the Latin noun vulgus, meaning "mob" or "common people." As you have no doubt guessed, English vulgar is another word that can be traced back to vulgus.

Borne (BORN)

transported or transmitted by — used in combination Borne is, just like born, the past participle of the verb bear, which can mean (among other things) "to contain" or "to give birth to." At first, borne and born were variant spellings of the same adjective. Used as in water-borne (or water-born), it means "carried by." In the phrase "borne enemies" (or "born enemies"), it means "from birth." To add to the confusion, the spelling borne sees occasional use in the passive voice in the "to give birth to" sense, as in "two sons were borne by his wife." In combining forms, born is reserved for the adjective related to birth (as in newly-born and Massachusetts-born) and borne retains the sense of "carried" ("airborne passengers").

Posthaste

with all possible speed In the 16th century, the phrase "haste, post, haste" was used to inform posts (as couriers were then called) that a letter was urgent and must be hastily delivered. Posts would then speedily gallop along a route with a series of places at which to get a fresh horse or to relay the letter to a fresh messenger. William Shakespeare was one of the first to use a version of the phrase adverbially in Richard II. "Old John of Gaunt ... hath sent post haste / To entreat your Majesty to visit him," the Bard versified. He also used the phrase as an adjective (a use that is now obsolete) in Othello: "The Duke ... requires your haste-post-haste appearance," Lieutenant Cassio reports to the play's namesake. Today, the word still possesses a literary flair attributable to the Bard.

Listlessly

without energy or interest

唱歌

孩子在唱歌。 The child is singing. chànggē Háizi zài chànggē. To sing

容易

成功不容易。 To succeed is not easy. róngyì Chénggōng bù róngyì. Easy

Capacious

(adj.) able to hold much, roomy

Epitome (ih-PIT-uh-mee)

1 : a typical or ideal example : embodiment 2 a : a summary of a written work b : a brief presentation or statement of something 3 : brief or miniature form — usually used with in Epitome first appeared in print in 1520, when it was used to mean "summary." If someone asks you to summarize a long paper, you effectively cut it up, mentioning only the most important ideas in your synopsis, and the etymology of epitome reflects this process. The word descends from Greek epitemnein, meaning "to cut short," which in turn was formed from the prefix epi- and the verb temnein, which means "to cut." Your summary probably also presents all the key points of the original work, which may explain why epitome eventually came to be used for any person or object that is a clear or good example of an abstraction.

Tome (TOHM)

1 : a volume forming part of a larger work 2 : book; especially : a large or scholarly book Tome comes from Latin tomus, which comes from Greek tomos, meaning "section" or "roll of papyrus." Tomos is from the Greek verb temnein, which means "to cut." In ancient times, some of the longest scrolls of papyrus occasionally were divided into sections. When it was first used in English in the 16th century, tome was a book that was a part of a multi-volume work or a major part of a single-volume book. Now a tome is most often simply a large and often ponderous book.

Malaise (muh-LAYZ)

1 : an indefinite feeling of debility or lack of health often indicative of or accompanying the onset of an illness 2 : a vague sense of mental or moral ill-being Malaise, which ultimately traces back to Old French, has been part of English since the 18th century. One of its most notable uses, however, came in 1979—well, sort of. U.S. President Jimmy Carter never actually used the word in his July 15 televised address, but it became known as the "malaise speech" all the same. In the speech, Carter described the U.S. as a nation facing a "crisis of confidence" and rife with "paralysis and stagnation and drift." He spoke of a "national malaise" a few days later, and it's not hard to see why the "malaise" name stuck. The speech was praised by some and criticized by others, but whatever your politics, it remains a vivid illustration of the meaning of malaise.

Gaffer (GAF-er)

1 : an old man — compare gammer 2 a British : foreman, overseer b British : employer 3 : a head glassblower 4 : a lighting electrician on a motion-picture or television set Though movie and cinema buffs associate gaffer with Hollywood, the word actually pre-dates motion pictures by about 300 years. The first recorded use of gaffer dates from the 16th century, when it was used as a title of respect for an older gentleman. Later it was used as a generic noun for any elderly man, and then it picked up the sense "foreman" (still used in British English), perhaps because the foreman was the most experienced and, most likely, the oldest person in a work crew. Today gaffer is usually applied to the head lighting electrician on a movie set. The gaffer's assistant is called the best boy.

Maverick (MAV-rik)

1 : an unbranded range animal; especially : a motherless calf 2 : an independent individual who does not go along with a group or party When a client gave Samuel A. Maverick 400 cattle to settle a $1,200 debt, the 19th-century south Texas lawyer had no use for them, so he left the cattle unbranded and allowed them to roam freely (supposedly under the supervision of one of his employees). Neighboring stockmen recognized their opportunity and seized it, branding and herding the stray cattle as their own. Maverick eventually recognized the folly of the situation and sold what was left of his depleted herd, but not before his name became synonymous with such unbranded livestock. By the end of the 19th century, the term maverick was being used to refer to individuals who prefer to blaze their own trails.

Raddled (RAD-uld)

1 : being in a state of confusion : lacking composure 2 : broken-down, worn The origin of raddled is unclear. Its participial form suggests verbal parentage, and indeed there is a verb raddle just a few decades older than raddled that seems a likely source. This raddle means "to mark or paint with raddle," raddle here being red ocher, or sometimes other pigments, used for marking animals. Raddle eventually came to mean "to color highly with rouge," the metaphor connecting the raddling of animal husbandry with immoderate makeup application: to be raddled thusly was not a compliment. The "confused" sense of raddled is often associated with the influence of alcohol or drugs. That connection is in keeping with the word's earliest known use, from a 1694 translation of French writer Francois Rabelais: "A ... fellow, continually raddled, and as drunk as a wheelbarrow."

Sanguine

1 : bloodred 2 a : consisting of or relating to blood b : bloodthirsty, sanguinary c : ruddy 3 : having blood as the predominating bodily humor; also : having the bodily conformation and temperament held characteristic of such predominance and marked by sturdiness, ruddy color, and cheerfulness 4 : confident, optimistic If you're the sort of cheery soul who always looks on the bright side no matter what happens, you have a sanguine personality. Sanguine describes one of the temperaments that ancient and medieval scholars believed was caused by an abundance of one of the four humors (another is phlegmatic, an adjective that describes the calm, cool, and collected among us). The word sanguine derives from sanguineus, Latin for "blood" or "bloody," and over the more than 600 years it's been in use it has had meanings ranging from "bloodthirsty" and "bloodred" to today's most common one, "confident, optimistic."

Cognizable (KAHG-nuh-zuh-bul)

1 : capable of being judicially heard and determined 2 : capable of being known It's easy to recognize the cogni- in cognizable and in other English words that have to do with knowing: cognitive, incognito, precognition, and recognition, for example. They're all from Latin cognōscere ("to get to know" or "to acquire knowledge of"). Cognizable was formed in the 17th century from the root of cognizance, which in English means "knowledge" or "awareness." Cognizance traces to cognōscere via Anglo-French conoisance and conoissant, meaning "aware" or "mindful." Cognizable was used in its legal sense almost from its introduction, and that meaning continues to be most common today.

Rectitudinous (rek-tuh-TOO-duh-nus)

1 : characterized by the quality of being honest and morally correct 2 : piously self-righteous Rectitudinous comes to us straight from Late Latin rectitudin-, rectitudo (English added the -ous ending), which itself ultimately derives from the Latin word rectus, meaning both "straight" and "right." (Other rectus descendants in English include rectitude, of course, and rectilinear, rectangle, and rectify.) In one of its earliest known print appearances, in the year 1897, it was used in the phrase "notoriously and unctuously rectitudinous." Although rectitude often expresses an admirable moral integrity, rectitudinous has always had a less flattering side. It can suggest not only moral uprightness but also a displeasing holier-than-thou attitude.

Sophomoric (sahf-MOR-ik)

1 : conceited and overconfident of knowledge but poorly informed and immature 2 : lacking in maturity, taste, or judgment Sophomores get a bad rap. A lot of people seem to think they're foolish (no matter what they do), when they themselves know they're pretty wise. The history of the words sophomore and sophomoric (which developed from sophomore) proves that it has always been tough to be a sophomore. Those words probably come from a combination of the Greek terms sophos (which means "wise") and mōros (which means "foolish"). But sophomores can take comfort in the fact that some very impressive words, including philosopher and sophisticated, are also related to sophos.

Gritty

1 : containing or resembling grit 2 : courageously persistent : plucky 3 : having strong qualities of tough uncompromising realism Gritty comes from grit ("small hard granules"), which in turn derives, via Middle English, from an Old English word for "sand" or "gravel." Grit has been around since before the 12th century, but the first appearance of gritty in print in English was near the end of the 16th century, when it was used in the sense of "resembling or containing small hard granules." Grit entered American slang with the meaning "courage or persistence" in the early 19th century, and gritty followed suit with a corresponding "plucky" sense. By the 19th century's end, gritty was also being used to describe a literary style that was rough and coarse.

Garniture (GAHR-nih-cher)

1 : embellishment, trimming 2 : a set of decorative objects (such as vases, urns, or clocks) In Middle French, garniture meant "accessory." It is an alteration of the Old French noun garneture, which is derived from the verb garnir, which meant "to equip, trim, or decorate." In fact, an Anglo-French stem of garnir, garniss-, is the source of the English verb garnish, which in its senses of "to decorate" and "to embellish" shares a similar relationship to garniture that the verb furnish shares with furniture. Furnish comes from the Anglo-French furniss-, a stem of the verb furnir or fournir, which also gave rise to the Middle French fourniture, the source of the English furniture.

Inordinate (in-OR-dun-ut)

1 : exceeding reasonable limits : immoderate 2 archaic : disorderly, unregulated At one time, if something was "inordinate," it did not conform to the expected or desired order of things. That sense, synonymous with disorderly or unregulated, is now archaic, but it offers a hint as to the origins of inordinate. The word traces back to the Latin verb ordinare, meaning "to arrange," combined with the negative prefix in-. Ordinare is also the ancestor of such English words as coordination, ordain, ordination, and subordinate. The Latin root is a derivative of the noun ordo, meaning "order" or "arrangement," from which the English order and its derivatives originate.

Ambient (AM-bee-unt)

1 : existing or present on all sides : encompassing 2 of electronic music : quiet and relaxing with melodies that repeat many times Biologists explore the effects of ambient light on plants; acoustics experts try to control ambient sound; and meteorologists study ambient pressure, air, or temperature. All this can make ambient seem like a technical term, but when it first saw light of day, that all-encompassing adjective was as likely to be used in poetry as in science. John Milton used it in Paradise Lost, and Alexander Pope wrote of a mountain "whose tow'ring summit ambient clouds conceal'd." Both poets and scientists who use ambient owe a debt to the Latin verb ambire, meaning "to go around," the grandparent of our English word.

Parabolic (pair-uh-BAH-lik)

1 : expressed by or being a parable : allegorical 2 : of, having the form of, or relating to a curve formed by the intersection of a cone and a plane parallel to an element of the cone The two distinct meanings of parabolic trace back to the development of Late Latin and New Latin. Late Latin is the Latin language used by writers in the third to sixth centuries. In that language, the word for "parable" was parabola—hence, the "parable" sense of parabolic. New Latin refers to the Latin used since the end of the medieval period, especially in regard to scientific description and classification. In New Latin, parabola names the same geometrical curve as it does in English. Both meanings of parabola were drawn from the Greek word for "comparison": parabolē.

Fete (FAYT)

1 : festival 2 a : a lavish often outdoor entertainment b : a large elaborate party Fete is a word worth celebrating. It's been around since Middle English, when it was used in a manuscript to refer to "fetes, spectacles and other worldly vanytees." Since the 19th century, fete has been doing double duty, also serving as a verb meaning "to honor or commemorate with a fete." You can honor fete by remembering that it entered English from Middle French, and that it derives ultimately from the Old French feste, meaning "festival"—a root that, not surprisingly, also gave English the word feast. Because of its French ties, you will sometimes see fete spelled with a circumflex above the first e (fête), as that's how it appears in that language.

Victual

1 : food usable by people 2 victuals plural : supplies of food : provisions If you're hungry for the story behind victual, get ready to dig into a rich and fulfilling history. The word derives via the Middle English and Anglo-French vitaille from the Late Latin plural noun victualia ("provisions"), and ultimately (by way of victus, meaning "nourishment" or "way of living") the Latin verb vivere, meaning "to live." Vivere is the source of a whole smorgasbord of other English words, such as vital, vivid, and survive. It's also the root of viand, another English word referring to food. There's also vittles, a word that sounds like it might be an alteration of the plural victuals (both are pronounced /VIT-ulz/) but which is actually just an earlier development of the Middle English vitaille that was served before victual.

Peccant (PEK-unt)

1 : guilty of a moral offense : sinning 2 : violating a principle or rule : faulty Peccant comes from the Latin verb peccare, which means "to sin," "to commit a fault," or "to stumble," and is related to the better-known English word peccadillo ("a slight offense"). Etymologists have suggested that peccare might be related to Latin ped- or pes, meaning "foot," by way of an unattested adjective, peccus, which may have been used to mean "having an injured foot" or "stumbling." Whether or not a connection truly exists between peccant and peccus, peccant itself involves stumbling of a figurative kind—making errors, for example, or falling into immoral, corrupt, or sinful behavior.

Katzenjammer (KAT-sun-jam-er)

1 : hangover 2 : distress, depression, or confusion resembling that caused by a hangover 3 : a discordant clamor Have you ever heard a cat wailing and felt that you could relate? Apparently some hungover German speakers once did. Katzenjammer comes from German Katze (meaning "cat") and Jammer (meaning "distress" or "misery"). English speakers borrowed the word for their hangovers (and other distressful inner states) in the first half of the 19th century and eventually applied it to outer commotion as well. The word isn't as popular in English today as it was around the mid-20th century, but it's well-known to many because of The Katzenjammer Kids, a long-running comic strip featuring the incorrigibly mischievous twins Hans and Fritz.

Cacophony (ka-KAH-fuh-nee)

1 : harsh or discordant sound : dissonance; specifically : harshness in the sound of words or phrases 2 : an incongruous or chaotic mixture : a striking combination Words that descend from the Greek word phōnē are making noise in English. Why? Because phōnē means "sound" or "voice." Cacophony comes from a joining of the Greek prefix kak- (from kakos,meaning "bad") with phōnē, so it essentially means "bad sound." Symphony, a word that indicates harmony or agreement in sound, traces to phōnē and the Greek prefix syn-, which means "together." Polyphony refers to a style of musical composition in which two or more independent melodies are juxtaposed in harmony, and it comes from a combination of phōnē and the Greek prefix poly-, meaning "many." And euphony, a word for a pleasing or sweet sound, combines phōnē with eu-, a prefix that means "good."

Pursy (PER-see)

1 : having a puckered appearance 2 : proud because of one's wealth especially in the absence of other distinctions : purse-proud There are two adjectives spelled pursy, each with its own etymology. The one describing a puckered appearance goes back to the mid-16th century and has its source in the noun purse ("a receptacle for carrying money and other small objects"); a drawstring purse's puckered appearance is the inspiration. The other pursy (pronounced PUH-see or PER-see) dates from the 15th century and can mean "short-winded especially because of corpulence" or simply "fat." This pursy comes from the Old French word pousser, meaning "to exert pressure" or "to breathe heavily"—the same word, etymologists believe, behind the word push.

Evergreen (EV-er-green)

1 : having foliage that remains green and functional through more than one growing season 2 a : retaining freshness or interest : perennial b : universally and continually relevant : not limited in applicability to a particular event or date Which adjective do you think has existed longer in English, evergreen or perennial? If you count the hyphenated form ever-green (which of course means "always green"), then evergreen is older; its earliest known use dates from the 16th century. The hyphen-free form is first seen in writing from the 17th century as an adjective as well as a noun, meaning "conifer." The earliest known use of perennial as an adjective meaning "remaining green all year long" appears in the first half of the 17th century. Evergreen also wins in the more general "long lasting" sense. It began appearing in figurative use circa mid-17th century, whereas perennial began to be used with that "enduring" meaning in the early 18th.

Null (NULL)

1 : having no legal or binding force : invalid 2 : amounting to nothing : nil 3 : having no value : insignificant 4 a : having no elements b : having zero as a limit 5 : of, being, or relating to zero English borrowed null from the Anglo-French nul, meaning "not any." That word, in turn, traces to the Latin word nullus, from ne-, meaning "not," and ullus, meaning "any." Null often pops up in legal and scientific contexts. It was originally used in Scottish law and still carries the meaning "having no legal or binding force." In mathematics, it is sometimes used to mean "containing nothing"; for example, the set of all whole numbers that are divisible by zero is the "null set" (that is, there are no numbers that fit that description). But null also has some more general uses. We often use it with the meaning "lacking meaning or value," as in "By the time I heard it, the news was null."

Crapulous (KRAP-yuh-lus)

1 : marked by intemperance especially in eating or drinking 2 : sick from excessive indulgence in liquor Crapulous may sound like a word that you shouldn't use in polite company, but it actually has a long and perfectly respectable history (although it's not a particularly kind way to describe someone). It is derived from the Late Latin adjective crapulosus, which, in turn, traces back to the Latin word crapula, meaning "intoxication." (The decidedly impolite word crap is unrelated; it comes from a British dialect term meaning "residue from rendered fat.") Crapula itself comes from a much older Greek word for the headache one gets from drinking too much alcohol. Crapulous first appeared in print in the 1530s. Approximately 200 years later, its close cousin crapulence arrived on the scene as a word for sickness caused by excessive drinking. Crapulence later acquired the meaning "great intemperance especially in drinking," but it is not an especially common word.

Frowzy (FROW-zee)

1 : musty, stale 2 : having a slovenly or uncared-for appearance The exact origins of frowsy are perhaps lost in an old, frowsy book somewhere, but some etymologists have speculated that frowsy (also spelled frowzy) shares a common ancestor with the younger, chiefly British, word frowsty, a synonym of frowsy in both its senses. That ancestor could be the Old French word frouste, meaning "ruinous" or "decayed," or the now-obsolete English word frough or frow, meaning "brittle" or "fragile." An early print example of frowsy can be found in Thomas Otway's 1681 comedy The Souldier's Fortune, wherein the character Beau refers to another character as "a frouzy Fellmonger."

Undertaker (UN-der-tay-ker)

1 : one who undertakes : one who takes the risk and management of business : entrepreneur 2 : one whose business is to prepare the dead for burial and to arrange and manage funerals 3 : an Englishman taking over forfeited lands in Ireland in the 16th and 17th centuries You may wonder how the word undertaker made the transition from "one who undertakes" to "one who makes a living in the funeral business." The latter meaning descends from the use of the word to mean "one who takes on business responsibilities." In the 18th century, a funeral-undertaker was someone who undertook, or managed, a funeral business. There were many undertakers in those days, undertaking all sorts of businesses, but as time went on undertaker became specifically identified with the profession of arranging burial. Today, funeral director is more commonly used, but undertaker still appears.

Futile (FYOO-tul)

1 : serving no useful purpose : completely ineffective 2 : occupied with trifles : frivolous Futile broke into 16th-century English as a Latinate borrowing from Middle French. The Latin derivative, fūtilis, was used to describe things that are brittle or fragile and, by extension, things serving no purpose or being pointless. These meanings survive in the English futile, which denotes ineffectiveness or frivolousness. In 1827, English author Robert Southey found use for the word by blending it into utilitarian to form futilitarian, a word that is used for anyone who believes that human striving is futile—that is, ineffective and/or frivolous.

Tenebrous (TEN-uh-brus)

1 : shut off from the light : dark, murky 2 : hard to understand : obscure 3 : causing gloom Tenebrous means "obscure" or "murky," but there's nothing unclear about its history. Etymologists know that the word derives from the Latin noun tenebrae, which means "darkness." Tenebrous has been used in English since the 15th century, and in the 20th century it was joined by some interesting relations. Tenebrionid is the name of a nocturnal beetle that is usually dark-colored and is also called a darkling beetle. Tenebrism refers to a style of painting—associated with the Italian painter Caravaggio—in which most of the figures are engulfed in shadow but some are dramatically illuminated by concentrated light.

Decoupage (day-koo-PAHZH)

1 : the art of decorating surfaces by applying cutouts (as of paper) and then coating with usually several layers of finish (such as lacquer or varnish) 2 : work produced by such art Decoupage originated in France in the 17th century as a means of artistically decorating pieces of furniture with pictures. It took a few centuries, but by the mid-20th century decoupage became a household name in American interior decoration. The word is fashioned from Middle French decouper, meaning "to cut out." Decouper, in turn, pastes together the prefix de- ("from" or "away") and couper ("to cut). Other descendants of couper include coppice (a growth of small trees that are periodically cut), coupé (a horse-drawn carriage for two with a driver outside and whose name is thought to be from French carrosse coupé, literally, "cut-off coach"), and the clear-cut coupon.

Gamut (GAM-ut)

1 : the whole series of recognized musical notes 2 : an entire range or series To get the lowdown on gamut, we have to dive to the bottom of a musical scale to which the 11th-century musician and monk Guido of Arezzo applied his particular system of solmization—that is, of using syllables to denote the tones of a musical scale. Guido called the first line of his bass staff gamma and the first note in his scale ut, which meant that gamma ut was the term for a note written on the first staff line. In time, gamma ut underwent a shortening to gamut but climbed the scale of meaning. It expanded to cover all the notes of Guido's scale, then to cover all the notes in the range of an instrument, and, eventually, to cover an entire range of any sort.

Fawn

1 : to court favor by a cringing or flattering manner 2 : to show affection — used especially of a dog Some people will be glad to learn the origins of fawn—and there's a hint about the word's etymology in that declaration. Middle English speakers adapted an Old English word meaning "to rejoice" to create the verb faunen, which shifted in spelling over time to become fawn. That Old English word, in turn, derives from fagan, meaning "glad." Fagan is also an ancestor of the English adjective fain, whose earliest (now obsolete) meaning is "happy" or "pleased." This fawn is not, however, related to the noun fawn, referring to a young deer. For that we can thank the Latin noun fetus, meaning "offspring."

Demarcate (dih-MAHR-kayt)

1 : to fix or define the limits of : delimit 2 : to set apart : distinguish Demarcate is set apart by its unique history. Scholars think it may have descended from the Italian verb marcare ("to mark"), which is itself of Germanic origin (the Old High German word for boundary, marha, is a relative). Marcare is the probable source of the Spanish marcar (also "to mark"), from which comes the Spanish demarcar ("to fix the boundary of"). In 1494, a Spanish noun, demarcación, was used to name the meridian dividing New World territory between Spain and Portugal. Later (about 1730), English speakers began calling this boundary the "line of demarcation," and eventually we began applying that phrase to other dividing lines as well. Demarcation, in turn, gave rise to demarcate in the early 19th century.

Confabulate (kun-FAB-yuh-layt)

1 : to talk informally : chat 2 : to hold a discussion : confer 3 : to fill in gaps in memory by fabrication Confabulate is a fabulous word for making fantastic fabrications. Given the similarities in spelling and sound, you might guess that confabulate and fabulous come from the same root, and they do—the Latin fābula, which refers to a conversation or a story. Another fābula descendant that continues to tell tales in English is fable. All three words have long histories in English: fable first appears in writing in the 14th century, and fabulous follows in the 15th. Confabulate is a relative newcomer, appearing at the beginning of the 1600s.

Panoply (PAN-uh-plee)

1 a : a full suit of armor b : ceremonial attire 2 : something forming a protective covering 3 a : a magnificent or impressive array b : a display of all appropriate appurtenances Panoply comes from the Greek word panoplia, which referred to the full suit of armor worn by hoplites, heavily armed infantry soldiers of ancient Greece. Panoplia is a blend of the prefix pan-, meaning "all," and hopla, meaning "arms" or "armor." (As you may have guessed already, hopla is also an ancestor of hoplite.) Panoply entered the English language in the 17th century, and since then it has developed other senses which extend both the "armor" and the "full set" aspects of its original use.

Accolade (AK-uh-layd)

1 a : a mark of acknowledgment : award b : an expression of praise 2 a : a ceremonial embrace b : a ceremony or salute conferring knighthood 3 : a brace or a line used in music to join two or more staffs carrying simultaneous parts Accolade was borrowed into English in the 16th century from French. The French noun, in turn, derives from the verb accoler, which means "to embrace," and ultimately from the Latin term collum, meaning "neck." (Collum is also an ancestor of the English word collar.) When it was first borrowed from French, accolade referred to a ceremonial embrace that once marked the conferring of knighthood. The term was later extended to any ceremony conferring knighthood (such as the more familiar tapping on the shoulders with the flat part of a sword's blade), and eventually extended to honors or awards in general.

Menagerie (muh-NAJ-uh-ree)

1 a : a place where animals are kept and trained especially for exhibition b : a collection of wild or foreign animals kept especially for exhibition 2 : a varied mixture Back in the days of Middle French, ménagerie meant "the management of a household or farm" or "a place where animals are tended." By the late 1600s, English speakers had adopted the word but dropped its housekeeping aspects, applying it specifically to the places where circuses and other exhibitions kept show animals. Later, menagerie was generalized to refer to any varied mixture, especially one that includes things that are strange or foreign to one's experience.

Supersede (soo-per-SEED)

1 a : to cause to be set aside b : to force out of use as inferior 2 : to take the place or position of 3 : to displace in favor of another Supersede ultimately derives from the Latin verb supersedēre, meaning "to sit on top of" (sedēre means "to sit"), "to be superior to," or "to refrain from," but it came to us through Scots Middle English, where it was rendered superceden and used in the sense of "to defer." It will come as no surprise that modern English speakers can be confused about how to spell this word—it sometimes turns up as supercede. In fact, some of the earliest records of the word in English show it spelled with a c. The s spelling has been the dominant choice since the 16th century, and while both spellings can be etymologically justified, supersede is now regarded as the "correct" version.

Shanghai (shang-HYE)

1 a : to put aboard a ship by force often with the help of liquor or a drug b : to put by force or threat of force into or as if into a place of detention 2 : to put by trickery into an undesirable position In the 1800s, long sea voyages were very difficult and dangerous, so people were understandably hesitant to become sailors. But sea captains and shipping companies needed crews to sail their ships, so they gathered sailors any way they could—even if that meant resorting to kidnapping by physical force or with the help of liquor or drugs. The word shanghai comes from the name of the Chinese city of Shanghai. People started to use the city's name for that unscrupulous way of obtaining sailors because the East was often a destination of ships that had kidnapped men onboard as crew.

Undergird (un-der-GERD)

1 archaic : to make secure underneath 2 : to form the basis or foundation of : strengthen, support The English verb gird means, among other things, "to encircle or bind with a flexible band." When undergird first entered English in the 16th century, it meant "to make secure underneath," as by passing a rope or chain underneath something (such as a ship). That literal sense has long since fallen out of use, but in the 19th century undergird picked up the figurative "strengthen" or "support" sense that we still use. Gird and consequently undergird both derive from the Old English geard, meaning "enclosure" or "yard." Gird also gives us girder, a noun referring to a horizontal piece supporting a structure.

Buttress (BUTT-russ)

1 architecture : a projecting structure of masonry or wood for supporting or giving stability to a wall or building 2 : something that resembles a buttress: such as a : a projecting part of a mountain or hill b biology : a horny protuberance on a horse's hoof at the heel c botany : the broadened base of a tree trunk or a thickened vertical part of it 3 : something that supports or strengthens In architecture, a buttress is an exterior support that projects from a wall to resist the sideways force, called thrust, created by the load on an arch or roof. The word buttress was first adopted into English as butres in the 14th century. It came to us from the Anglo-French (arche) boteraz, meaning "thrusting (arch)," and ultimately derives from the verb buter, "to thrust." Buter is also the source of our verb butt, meaning "to thrust, push, or strike with the head or horns." Buttress developed figurative use relatively soon after its adoption, being applied to anything that supports or strengthens something else.

Centurion

A captain of a company of one hundred infantry in the ancient Roman army.

Waxed

To increase in size, numbers, strength, prosperity, or intensity

De-extinction

['The (proposed or imagined) revival of an extinct species, typically by cloning or selective breeding. Also: the (proposed) use of such methods to prevent a currently endangered species from becoming extinct.']

Rector

[in the Episcopal Church] a member of the clergy who has charge of a parish Origin late Middle English: from Latin rector 'ruler,' from rect- 'ruled,' from the verb regere .

Shot-clog (SHAHT-klahg)

a bore tolerated only because he or she pays the shot The shot in shot-clog refers to a charge to be paid. It's a cousin to, and synonymous with, scot, a word likely only familiar to modern speakers in the term scot-free, meaning "completely free from obligation, harm, or penalty." The origin of the clog part of shot-clog is less clear. Perhaps it's meant to draw a parallel between a substance that impedes a pipe's flow and a person who impedes a good time; or perhaps companions' tabs accumulate before the shot-clog as so much dross in a clogged pipe, while the shot-clog yammers on unawares. The 17th-century playwright Ben Jonson was particularly fond of shot-clog, and while the word is no longer in regular use, it might work for you as a suitable old-time insult for that person in your party who is fine to have around so long as they pick up the tab.

Apologia

a defense especially of one's opinions, position, or actions As you might expect, apologia is a close relative of apology. Both words derive from Late Latin; apologia came to English as a direct borrowing while apology traveled through Middle French. The Latin apologia derives from a combination of the Greek prefix apo-, meaning "away from," and the word logia, from Greek lógos, meaning "speech." In their earliest English uses, apologia and apology meant basically the same thing: a formal defense or justification of one's actions or opinions. Nowadays, however, the two are distinct. The modern apology generally involves an admission of wrongdoing and an expression of regret for past actions, while an apologia typically focuses on explaining, justifying, or making clear the grounds for some course of action, belief, or position.

Tucket (TUCK-ut)

a fanfare on a trumpet Tucket can be found most notably in the stage directions of several of William Shakespeare's plays. In King Lear, for example, a tucket sounds to alert the Earl of Gloucester of the arrival of the Duke of Cornwall (Act II, Scene i). The word tucket likely derives from the obsolete English verb tuk, meaning "to beat the drum" or "to sound the trumpet." These days, the word fanfare itself refers to a sounding of trumpets made, for example, in celebration or to alert one of another's arrival. The presence of fanfare might be the reason that tucket is rarely used in contemporary English.

Evergreen

a tree that does not lose its leaves in the winter and stays green all year round "the glossy laurel is hardy and evergreen" enduring success, freshness, or relevance "in Hollywood parlance, Star Trek is an evergreen asset"

Benison (BEN-uh-sun)

blessing, benediction Benison and its synonym benediction share more than a common meaning; the two words come from the same root, the Latin benedicere, meaning "to bless." (Benedicere comes from the Latin bene dicere—"to speak well of"—a combination of the Latin bene, meaning "well," and dicere, "to say.") Of the two words, benediction is more common today, but benison has a longer history in English. Records show that benison has been used in our language since the 13th century, whereas benediction didn't appear in print until the 15th century.

Thole (THOHL)

chiefly dialectal : endure Thole has a long history in the English language. It existed in Middle English in its current form, and in Old English in the form tholian, but in these modern times, it tholes only in a few of England's northern dialects. It has, however, a linguistic cousin far more familiar to most English speakers: the word tolerate traces back to Latin tolerare, meaning "to endure, put up with," and tolerare and tholian share a kinship with the Greek verb tlēnai, meaning "to bear." Unrelated to our featured word thole, there is another (also very old) thole, which can be used as a synonym of peg or pin, or can refer to either of a pair of pins set in the gunwale of a boat to hold an oar in place.

Opacity

impenetrably dense; hard to understand

Immaterial

insignificant; unimportant

Didactic

instructive

Desideratum (dih-sid-uh-RAH-tum)

something desired as essential We'd like to introduce you to some close cousins of the common word desire. All trace their roots to the Latin sīder-, or sīdus, which has historically been understood to mean "heavenly body," but which may also have an older, non-celestial meaning of "mark, target, goal." Whether etymologically starry or grounded, dēsīderāre, meaning "to long for," was born when Latin de- was prefixed to sīder-. Dēsīderāre begat Anglo-French desirer, which in turn brought forth English desire, desirous, and desirable in the 13th and 14th centuries, with desideration following in the 15th. Then, in the 17th century, English acquired desiderate ("to wish for") and desideratum (desiderata in the plural), all of which can lay claim to direct ancestry from desiderare.

Meld

to blend or mix together : merge As a verb meaning "to blend or merge," meld dates only to the first half of the 20th century. In its early days, the word attracted some unfavorable attention. Those who didn't like it tended to perceive it as a misuse of an older meld meaning "to declare or announce (a card or cards) for a score in a card game" (such as pinochle or gin rummy). But the more recent meld, a blend of melt and weld, was an entirely new coinage suggesting a smooth and thorough blending of two or more things into a single, homogeneous whole. The word is no longer controversial.

Suffuse (suh-FYOOZ)

to spread over or through in the manner of fluid or light : flush, fill The Latin word suffendere, ancestor to suffuse by way of Latin suffūsus, has various meanings that shed light on our modern word, among them "to pour on or in (as an addition)" and "to fill with a liquid, color, or light that wells up from below." Suffundere is a blend of the prefix sub- ("under" or "beneath") and the verb fundere ("to pour" or "to send forth"). Other English verbs related to fundere continue the theme of pouring or spreading: diffuse ("to pour out and spread freely"), effuse ("to pour or flow out"), transfuse ("to cause to pass from one to another"), and the verb fuse itself when it's used to mean "to meld or join."

Equator

Earth's Equator (spelled with capital E) is a specific case of a planetary equator. It is about 40,075 km (24,901 mi) long, of which 78.8% lies across water and 21.3% over land.[citation needed] In spatial (3D) geometry, as applied in astronomy, the equator of a rotating spheroid (such as a planet) is the parallel (circle of latitude) at which latitude is defined to be 0°. It is the imaginary line on the spheroid, equidistant from its poles, dividing it into northern and southern hemispheres. In other words, it is the intersection of the spheroid with the plane perpendicular to its axis of rotation and midway between its geographical poles. When the Sun is directly above the Earth's Equator (on the equinoxes of approximately March 20 and September 23), sunlight shines perpendicular to the Earth's axis of rotation, and all latitudes have a 12-hour day and 12-hour night. On and near the Equator sunlight comes from almost directly above every day year-round, and thus the Equator has a rather stable daytime temperature the whole year.

Pedestrian

Lacking excitement; ordinary and dull

Anthropologists

People who study the artifacts and remains of humans in order to learn about the cultures of these people.

Mired

Stuck, entangled (in something, like a swamp or muddy area), soiled

Extraneous

(adj.) coming from the outside, foreign; present but not essential, irrelevant

Cornerstone

(n.) the starting point of a building; a fundamental principle or element; an important quality or feature on which a particular thing depends or is based. "a national minimum wage remained the cornerstone of policy"

Laissez-faire (less-ay-FAIR)

1 : a doctrine opposing governmental interference in economic affairs beyond the minimum necessary for the maintenance of peace and property rights 2 : a philosophy or practice characterized by a usually deliberate abstention from direction or interference especially with individual freedom of choice and action The French phrase laissez faire literally means "allow to do," with the idea being "let people do as they choose." The origins of laissez-faire are associated with the Physiocrats, a group of 18th-century French economists who believed that government policy should not interfere with the operation of natural economic laws. The actual coiner of the phrase may have been French economist Vincent de Gournay, or it may have been François Quesnay, who is considered the group's founder and leader. The original phrase was laissez faire, laissez passer, with the second part meaning "let (things) pass." Laissez-faire, which first showed up in an English context in the first half of the 19th century, can still mean "a doctrine opposing governmental interference in economic affairs," but it is also used in broader contexts in which a "hands-off" or "anything-goes" policy or attitude is adopted. It is frequently used attributively before another noun.

Phantasm

1 : a product of fantasy: as a : delusive appearance : illusion b : ghost, specter c : a figment of the imagination 2 : a mental representation of a real object Phantasm is from Middle English fantasme, a borrowing from Anglo-French fantasme, which itself is a derivative of Latin and Greek words—and ultimately the Greek verb phantazein, meaning "to present to the mind." The Greek verb took shape from phainein, meaning "to show," and this root appears in several English words that have to do with the way things seem or appear rather than the way they really are. Phantasmagoria and diaphanous are examples. Also from this root are words such as fanciful and fantasy, in which the imagination plays an important part.

Girandole (JEER-un-dohl)

1 : a radiating and showy composition (such as a cluster of skyrockets fired together) 2 : an ornamental branched candlestick 3 : a pendant earring usually with three ornaments hanging from a central piece The earliest uses of girandole in English, in the 17th century, referred to a kind of firework or to something, such as a fountain, with a radiating pattern like that of a firework. Such a pattern is reflected in the word's etymology: girandole can be traced back by way of French and Italian to the Latin word gyrus, meaning "gyre" or "a circular or spiral motion or form." By the 18th century, girandole was being used for a branched candlestick, perhaps due to its resemblance to the firework. The word's use for a kind of earring was lit during the 19th century.

Minion (MIN-yun)

1 : a servile dependent, follower, or underling 2 : one highly favored : idol 3 : a subordinate or petty official Minion comes to us from Middle French and has a somewhat surprising cousin in English: filet mignon. The two words are connected by way of Middle French mignon, meaning "darling." Minion entered English around 1500 directly from Middle French, whereas filet mignon arrived significantly later by way of a modern French phrase meaning "dainty fillet." The earliest uses of minion referred to someone who was a particular favorite, or darling, of a sovereign or other important personage. Over time, however, the word developed a more derogatory sense referring to a person who is servile and unimportant.

Aegis (EE-jus)

1 : a shield or breastplate emblematic of majesty that was associated with Zeus and Athena 2 a : protection b : controlling or conditioning influence 3 a : auspices, sponsorship b : control or guidance especially by an individual, group, or system We borrowed aegis from Latin, but the word ultimately derives from the Greek noun aigis, which means "goatskin." In ancient Greek mythology, an aegis was something that offered physical protection, and it has been depicted in various ways, including as a magical protective cloak made from the skin of the goat that suckled Zeus as an infant and as a shield fashioned by Hephaestus that bore the severed head of the Gorgon Medusa. The word first entered English in the 15th century as a noun referring to the shield or protective garment associated with Zeus or Athena. It later took on a more general sense of "protection" and, by the late-19th century, it had acquired the extended senses of "auspices" and "sponsorship."

Tincture (TINK-cher)

1 : a solution of a medicinal substance in an alcoholic solvent 2 a : a characteristic quality : cast b : a slight admixture : trace 3 : color, tint 4 : a heraldic metal, color, or fur Tincture derives from the same root as tint and tinge—the Latin verb tingere, meaning "to moisten or dip." Tincture specifically derives via Middle English from the Latin tinctus, the past participle of tingere. When the word first appeared in English in the 14th century, tincture referred to a coloring matter or dye, but by the 17th century the word had acquired a number of additional meanings, including "a slight infusion or trace of something." Tinge and shade are two other words referring to color that can be used the same way. Tincture can also refer, among other things, to the colors used in a coat of arms or an herbal or medicinal solution.

Mentor

1 : a trusted counselor or guide 2 : tutor, coach We acquired mentor from the literature of ancient Greece. In Homer's epic The Odyssey, Odysseus was away from home fighting and journeying for 20 years. During that time, Telemachus, the son he left as a babe in arms, grew up under the supervision of Mentor, an old and trusted friend. When the goddess Athena decided it was time to complete the education of young Telemachus, she visited him disguised as Mentor and they set out together to learn about his father. Today, we use the word mentor for anyone who is a positive, guiding influence in another (usually younger) person's life.

Bread

1 : a usually baked and leavened food made of a mixture whose basic constituent is flour or meal 2 : food, sustenance 3 a : livelihood b slang : money Bread is a food consisting of flour or meal that is moistened, kneaded into dough, and often fermented using yeast, and it has been a major sustenance since prehistoric times. With the right ingredients, it can be a source of complex carbohydrates and B vitamins (add whole wheat, and you increase its nutritional value). Through synecdoche[a figure of speech by which a part is put for the whole (such as fifty sail for fifty ships), the whole for a part (such as society for high society), the species for the genus (such as cutthroat for assassin), the genus for the species (such as a creature for a man), or the name of the material for the thing made (such as boards for stage)], its name rose to refer to any source of food or sustenance. Reference to a path to sustenance followed in the 18th century. "I was under no necessity of seeking my bread," recounts Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe. Dough had already been used to refer to money in 19th-century slang and, in a natural extension, bread was served with the same meaning in the jazz and beat slang of the mid-20th century ("Dean just raced in society, eager for bread and love," writes beatnik Jack Kerouac).

Derelict (DAIR-uh-likt)

1 : abandoned especially by the owner or occupant; also : run-down 2 : lacking a sense of duty : negligent The Latin verb relinquere, meaning "to leave behind," left behind a few English derivatives, including derelict. Something derelict has been left behind, or at least appears that way. In another sense, someone who is derelict leaves behind or neglects their duties or obligations. Another descendant of relinquere is relinquish, meaning "to leave behind," "to give up," or "to release." Relic is another example of a word that ultimately comes from relinquere. Relics, in the original sense of the term, referred to things treasured for their association with a saint or martyr—that is, objects saints and martyrs had left behind. Relinquere also gives English its name for the containers or shrines which hold relics, reliquary.

Plaudit (PLAW-dit)

1 : an act or round of applause 2 : enthusiastic approval — usually used in plural You earn plaudits for your etymological knowledge if you can connect plaudit to words besides the familiar applaud and applause. A word coined by shortening Latin plaudite, meaning "applaud," plaudit had gained approval status in English by the first years of the 17th century. Latin plaudite is a form of the verb plaudere, meaning "to applaud"; plaudere, in turn, is ancestor to explode, plausible, and the archaic displode (a synonym of explode).

Bespoke (bih-SPOHK)

1 : custom-made 2 : dealing in or producing custom-made articles In the English language of yore, the verb bespeak had various meanings, including "to speak," "to accuse," and "to complain." In the 16th century, bespeak acquired another meaning—"to order or arrange in advance." It is from that sense that we get the adjective bespoke, referring to clothes and other things that are ordered before they are made. You are most likely to encounter this adjective in British contexts, such as the 2008 Reuters news story about a young pig in Northern England who was fitted with "bespoke miniature footwear" (custom-made Wellington boots) to help it overcome a phobia of mud.

Redolent (RED-uh-lunt)

1 : exuding fragrance : aromatic 2 a : full of a specified fragrance : scented b : evocative, suggestive Redolent traces back to the Latin verb olēre ("to smell") and is a relative of olfactory ("of, relating to, or connected with the sense of smell"). In its earliest English uses in the 15th century, redolent simply meant "having an aroma." Today, it usually applies to a place or thing impregnated with odors. It can also be used of something that reminds us of something else or evokes a certain emotional response, as in "a city redolent of antiquity."

Garrulous; Garrulousness

1 : given to prosy, rambling, or tedious loquacity : pointlessly or annoyingly talkative 2 : using or containing many and usually too many words : wordy English has many adjectives that share the meaning "given to talk" or "talking." Talkative may imply a readiness to talk or a disposition to enjoy conversation, while loquacious suggests the power of expressing oneself articulately, fluently, or glibly. Voluble suggests a free, easy, and unending talkativeness, and garrulous implies talkativeness that is dull, rambling, or tedious. Garrulous, by the way, derives from the Latin verb garrīre, which means "to chatter" or "to talk rapidly."

Unbeknownst

1 : happening or existing without the knowledge of someone specified — usually used with to 2 : not known or not well-known : unknown Unbeknownst is an irregular variant of the older unbeknown, which derives from beknown, an obsolete synonym of known. But for a word with a straightforward history, unbeknownst and the now less common unbeknown have caused quite a stir among usage commentators. In spite of widespread use (including appearances in the writings of Charles Dickens, A. E. Housman, and E. B. White), the grammarian H. W. Fowler in 1926 categorized the two words as "out of use except in dialect or uneducated speech." The following year, G. P. Krapp called them "humorous, colloquial, and dialectal." Our evidence, however, shows that both words are standard even in formal prose.

Espouse (ih-SPOWZ)

1 : marry 2 : to take up and support as a cause : become attached to As you might guess, the words espouse and spouse are related, both deriving from the Latin verb spondēre, meaning "to promise" or "to betroth." In fact, the two were once completely interchangeable, with each serving as a noun meaning "a newly married person" or "a husband or wife" and also as a verb meaning "to marry." Their semantic separation began in the 18th century, when the noun espouse fell out of use. Nowadays, espouse is most often seen or heard as a verb used in the figuratively extended sense "to commit to and support as a cause." Spouse continued to be used in both noun and verb forms until the 20th century, when its verb use declined and it came to be used mainly as a noun meaning "husband or wife."

Noachian (noh-AY-kee-un)

1 : of or relating to the patriarch Noah or his time 2 : ancient, antiquated Students of the Bible know that Noah survived the Great Flood by stowing himself, his family, and male and female specimens of every kind of creature on his Ark. Noachian is derived from the Hebrew name for Noah. Modern contexts find Noachian used in reference to the Great Flood or, more humorously, to describe torrential rainstorms and flooding reminiscent of the Biblical event. It could be said that usage of Noachian spans even beyond planet Earth. Astronomers studying the surface of the planet Mars use Noachian to refer to the epoch between 4.6 and 3.5 billion years ago when that planet's oldest craters were believed to be formed. This usage is based on Noachis Terra, the name of one of the landmasses of Mars, which translates as "Land of Noah" and was chosen in the 19th century by Italian astronomer Giovanni Schiaparelli.

Labile

1 : readily or continually undergoing chemical, physical, or biological change or breakdown : unstable 2 : readily open to change We are confident that you won't slip up or err in learning today's word, despite its etymology. Labile was borrowed into English from French and can be traced back (by way of Middle French labile, meaning "prone to err") to the Latin verb labi, meaning "to slip or fall." Indeed, the first sense of labile in English was "prone to slip, err, or lapse," but that usage is now obsolete. Other labi descendants in English include collapse, elapse, and prolapse, as well as lapse itself.

Gainsay

1 : to declare to be untrue or invalid 2 : contradict, oppose You might have trouble figuring out gainsay if you're thinking of our modern gain plus say. It should help to know that the gain- part is actually related to against—specifically the Old English prefix gēan- ("against, in opposition to"). From that came Middle English gain-, which was joined with sayen ("to say") to form gainsayen, the Middle English predecessor of gainsay. So when you see gainsay, think "to say against"—that is, "to deny" or "to contradict."

Caterwaul (KAT-er-wawl)

1 : to make a harsh cry 2 : to protest or complain noisily An angry (or amorous) cat can make a lot of noise. As long ago as the mid-1300s, English speakers were using caterwaul for the act of voicing feline passions. The cater part is, of course, connected to the cat, but scholars disagree about whether it traces to Middle Dutch cāter, meaning "tomcat," or if it is really just cat with an "-er" added. The waul is probably imitative in origin; it represents the feline howl itself. English's first caterwaul was a verb focused on feline vocalizations, but by the 1600s it was also being used for similar non-cat noises and for noisy people or things.

Countermand (KOUNT-er-mand)

1 : to revoke (a command) by a contrary order 2 : to recall or order back by a superseding contrary order In the military, one's mandate is to follow the commands (and sometimes the countermands) of the officers. Doing their bidding is not particularly commendable—it's simply mandatory. The Latin verb mandare, meaning "to entrust" or "to order," is the authority behind countermand. It's also behind the words mandate, command, demand, commend (which can mean "to entrust" as well as "to praise"), and mandatory. Countermand came to English via Anglo French, where the prefix cuntre- ("against") was combined with the verb mander ("to command"). It has been a part of our language since the 1400s.

Mesmerize (MEZ-muh-ryze)

1 : to subject to mesmerism; also : hypnotize 2 : spellbind Experts can't agree on whether Franz Anton Mesmer (1734-1815) was a quack or a genius, but all concede that the late 18th-century physician's name is the source of the word mesmerize. In his day, Mesmer was the toast of Paris, where he enjoyed the support of notables including Queen Marie Antoinette. He treated patients with a force he termed animal magnetism. Many believe that what he actually used was what we now call hypnotism. Mesmer's name was first applied to a technique for inducing hypnosis in 1784.

Dragoon

1 : to subjugate or persecute by harsh use of troops 2 : to force into submission or compliance especially by violent measures A dragoon was a mounted European infantryman of the 17th and 18th centuries armed with a firearm called by the same name. No arm-twisting should be needed to get you to believe that the firearm's name, which came to English from French, is derived from its semblance to a fire-breathing dragon when fired. History has recorded the dragonish nature of the dragoons who persecuted the French Protestants in the 17th century during the reign of Louis XIV. The persecution by means of the dragoons led to the use of the word dragoon as a verb.

Footle (FOO-tul)

1 : to talk or act foolishly 2 : to waste time : trifle, fool Footle will be more familiar to speakers of British English than it is to speakers of American English. Its likely source is the seldom-used footer, meaning "to waste time." That word is etymologically connected with fouter (also spelled foutra), a word referring to something of little value or someone worthless or bungling. But the link between footle and footer is speculative. What we can say with confidence is that footle is a verb of 19th century origin that—along with the derivative adjective footling (as in "a footling amateur")—is still apt when discussing foolish or trifling people or things.

Motley

1 : variegated in color 2 : made up of many different people or things Motley made its debut as an English adjective and noun in the 14th century, but etymologists aren't completely sure where it came from. Many think it probably derived from the Middle English mot, meaning "mote" or "speck." The word is also used as a noun identifying a multicolored fabric, a garment made from such a fabric, or—perhaps the best known sense of all—the fool who often wore such outfits in the European courts of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance.

Quiddity (KWID-uh-tee)

1 : whatever makes something the type that it is : essence 2 a : a trifling point : quibble b : an unusual personal opinion or habit : eccentricity When it comes to synonyms of quiddity, the Q's have it. Consider quintessence, a synonym of the "essence of a thing" sense of quiddity (this oldest sense of quiddity dates from the 14th century). Quibble is a synonym of the "trifling point" sense; that meaning of quiddity arose from the subtler points of 16th-century academic arguments. And quirk, like quiddity, can refer to a person's eccentricities. Of course, quiddity also derives from a "Q" word, the Latin pronoun quis, which is one of two Latin words for "who" (the other is qui). Quid, the neuter form of quis, gave rise to the Medieval Latin quidditas, which means "essence," a term that was essential to the development of the English quiddity.

Links

1 Scotland : sand hills especially along the seashore 2 : golf course; especially : a golf course on linksland The game of golf originated on the sandy hills of Scotland on a type of terrain known as links or linksland. Eventually, the game's layout came to be called by the same name as the land, and links developed the meaning of "a golf course built on the coastline," which eventually broadened to include any golf course. Links is ultimately derived from the Old English word hlincas, the plural of hlinc, meaning "ridge," and teed off in 15th-century Scottish English as a name for sandy, hilly terrain. Britain has a number of old-fashioned links courses (built to resemble the Scottish landscape and located on the coastline), and there are a few in the United States as well.

Quip

1 a : a clever usually taunting remark : gibe b : a witty or funny observation or response usually made on the spur of the moment 2 : quibble, equivocation 3 : something strange, droll, curious, or eccentric : oddity Quip is an abbreviation of quippy, a noun that is no longer in use. Etymologists believe that quippy derived from the Latin quippe, a word meaning "indeed" or "to be sure" that was often used ironically. The earliest sense of quip, referring to a cutting or sarcastic remark, was common for approximately a century after it first appeared in print in the early 1500s. It then fell out of use until the beginning of the 19th century, when it underwent a revival that continues to the present day.

Remittance (rih-MIT-unss)

1 a : a sum of money remitted b : an instrument by which money is remitted 2 : transmittal of money (as to a distant place) Since the 14th century, the verb remit has afforded a variety of meanings, including "to lay aside (a mood or disposition)," "to release from the guilt or penalty of," "to submit or refer for consideration," and "to postpone or defer." It is derived from Latin mittere (meaning "to let go" or "to send"), which is also the root of the English verbs admit, commit, emit, omit, permit, submit, and transmit. Use of remittance in financial contexts referring to the release of money as payment isn't transacted until the 17th century.

Vocation (voh-KAY-shun)

1 a : a summons or strong inclination to a particular state or course of action; especially : a divine call to the religious life b : an entry into the priesthood or a religious order 2 a : the work in which a person is employed : occupation b : the persons engaged in a particular occupation 3 : the special function of an individual or group Vocation has been making its voice heard in English since the 15th century, when it referred to a summons from God to perform a particular task or function in life, especially a religious career. It should come as no surprise, then, that the word is a descendant of Latin vocatio, meaning "summons." Vocatio, in turn, comes from vocare, meaning "to call," which itself is from vox, meaning "voice." Vocation also has a secular position in the English language as a word for the strong desire to do a certain kind of work or the work itself, much like the words calling or occupation.

Redact (rih-DAK-shun)

1 a : an act or instance of preparing something for publication b : an act or instance of obscuring or removing something from a document prior to publication or release 2 : a work that has been redacted : edition, version Here's a quiz for all you etymology buffs. Can you pick the words from the following list that come from the same Latin root? A. redaction B. prodigal C. agent D. essayE. navigate F. ambiguous If you guessed all of them, you are right. Now, for bonus points, name the Latin root that they all have in common. If you knew that it is the verb agere, meaning to "to drive, lead, act, or do," you get an A+. Redaction is from the Latin verb redigere ("to bring back" or "to reduce"), which was formed by adding the prefix red- (meaning "back") to agere. Some other agere offspring include act, agenda, cogent, litigate, chasten, agile, and transact.

Prerogative (prih-RAH-guh-tiv)

1 a : an exclusive or special right, power, or privilege: such as (1) : one belonging to an office or an official body (2) : one belonging to a person, group, or class of individuals (3) : one possessed by a nation as an attribute of sovereignty b : the discretionary power inhering in the British Crown 2 : a distinctive excellence In ancient Rome, voting at legal assemblies was done by group, with the majority in a group determining its vote. The group chosen to vote first on an issue was called the praerogativa (that term traces to a verb meaning "to ask for an opinion before another"). Because the first vote was considered to be of great importance, Latin speakers also used the noun praerogativa to mean "preference" and later "privilege." As praerogativa passed through Anglo-French and Middle English, its spelling shifted to create the noun we know today.

Accident (AK-suh-dunt)

1 a : an unforeseen and unplanned event or circumstance b : lack of intention or necessity : chance 2 a : an unfortunate event resulting especially from carelessness or ignorance b medical : an unexpected and medically important bodily event especially when injurious c law : an unexpected happening causing loss or injury which is not due to any fault or misconduct on the part of the person injured but for which legal relief may be sought d US, informal — used euphemistically to refer to an uncontrolled or involuntary act or instance of urination or defecation (as by a baby or a pet) 3 : a nonessential property or quality of an entity or circumstance Accident is just one of many words in the English language from the Latin verb cadere, meaning "to fall." Among the others are deciduous (an adjective used to describe something, such as leaves, which fall off or shed seasonally or at a certain stage of development in the life cycle), cascade (which can mean, among other things, "a steep fall of water" or "something falling or rushing forth"), cadence ("a falling inflection of the voice"), and decay ("to fall into ruin"). Chance, which functions as a synonym of accident in one sense, is also a cadere descendant.

Bravado (bruh-VAH-doh)

1 a : blustering swaggering conduct b : a pretense of bravery 2 : the quality or state of being foolhardy Bravado ultimately traces to the Old Italian adjective bravo, meaning "courageous" or "wild." Nowadays, the wildness once associated with bravado has been tamed to an overbearing boldness that comes from arrogance or a position of power. Celebrities, political or corporate giants, and the schoolyard bully may all show bravado (though they often turn out to be not so tough after all). Bravado is also used for show-offish, daring acts that seem reckless and inconsistent with good sense, but might nonetheless be applauded with shouts of "Bravo!" when successful (the spectacular feats of stuntmen, for example).

Impervious

1 a : not allowing entrance or passage : impenetrable b : not capable of being damaged or harmed 2 : not capable of being affected or disturbed The English language is far from impervious, and, of course, a great many Latinate terms have entered it throughout its history. Impervious is one of the many that broke through in the 17th century. It comes from the Latin impervius, which adds the prefix im- to pervius, meaning "passable" or "penetrable." Pervius—which is also the source of the relatively uncommon English word pervious, meaning "accessible" or "permeable"—comes from per-, meaning "through," and via, meaning "way."

Torrid

1 a : parched with heat especially of the sun : hot b : giving off intense heat : scorching 2 : ardent, passionate Torrid derives from the Latin verb torrēre, which means "to burn" or "to parch" and is an ancestor of our word toast. Despite the dry implications of this root, it is also an ancestor of torrent, which can refer to a violent stream of liquid (as in "a torrent of rain"). Torrid first appeared in English in the 16th century, and was originally used to describe something burned or scorched by exposure to the sun. The term torrid zone later came about to refer to tropical regions of the Earth. Torrid has taken on several extended meanings that we would use for hot, including "showing fiery passion," as in "torrid love letters," or "displaying unusual luck or fortune," as in "a baseball player on a torrid hitting streak."

Obdurate (AHB-duh-rut)

1 a : stubbornly persistent in wrongdoing b : hardened in feelings 2 : resistant to persuasion or softening influences When you are confronted with someone obdurate, you may end up feeling dour. During the encounter, you may find that you need to be durable to keep your sanity intact. Maybe you will find such situations less stressful in the future if you can face them knowing that the words obdurate, dour, and durable are etymological kissing cousins. All of those words trace back to the Latin adjective durus, which means "hard." This adjective can still be found in dura mater, the name for the tough fibrous material that surrounds the brain and spinal cord, which comes from a Medieval Latin phrase meaning, literally, "hard mother."

Mise en scène (meez-ahn-SEN)

1 a : the arrangement of actors and scenery on a stage for a theatrical production b : stage setting 2 a : the physical setting of an action (as of a narrative or a motion picture) : context b : environment, milieu In French, mise en scène literally means "the action of putting onto the stage." The term's use originated in stage drama, where it refers to the way actors and scenery props are arranged; as its usage expanded into other narrative arts, its meaning shifted. In film production, mise en scène refers to all of the elements that comprise a single shot; that includes, but is not limited to, the actors, setting, props, costumes, and lighting. The director of a play or film is called the metteur en scène—literally, "one who puts on the stage."

Welkin (WEL-kin)

1 a : the vault of the sky : firmament b : the celestial abode of God or the gods : heaven 2 : the upper atmosphere When it comes to welkin, the sky's the limit. This heavenly word has been used in English to refer to the vault of the sky for centuries, and it derives from an Old English word meaning "cloud." In current English, welkin is still flying high, and it is often teamed with the verb ring to suggest a loud noise or an exuberant expression of emotion, as in "the welkin rang with the sound of the orchestra" or "her hearty laugh made the welkin ring." These contemporary phrases echo an older use—the original words of a carol that once began "Hark, how all the welkin ring," which we now know as "Hark! The herald angels sing."

Detritus (dih-TRYE-tus)

1 geology : loose material (such as rock fragments or organic particles) that results directly from disintegration 2 a : a product of disintegration, destruction, or wearing away : debris b : miscellaneous remnants : odds and ends If you use detritus in speech, remember to stress the second syllable, as you do in the words arthritis and bronchitis. Once you've mastered its meaning and pronunciation, you'll find that detritus is a term—originally a geology term—that can be applied in many situations. After the first hard freeze of fall, gardens are littered with the detritus of the summer's plants and produce: stalks, leaves, vines, and maybe even an abandoned hand trowel. As a flood-swollen river retreats to its banks, it leaves detritus—debris gathered by the raging waters—in its wake. The detritus of civilization may include junkyards and abandoned buildings; mental detritus may include all kinds of useless trivia.

Preen (PREEN)

1 of a bird : to groom with the bill especially by rearranging the barbs and barbules of the feathers and by distributing oil from the uropygial gland 2 : to dress or smooth (oneself) up : primp 3 : to pride or congratulate (oneself) on an achievement 4 : to make oneself sleek 5 : to behave or speak with obvious pride or self-satisfaction Preen hatched in 14th-century Middle English, and early on it displayed various spelling forms, including prenen, prayne, prene, and preyne. The word traces to Anglo-French puroindre, or proindre, linking pur-, meaning "thoroughly," with uindre, oindre, meaning "to anoint or rub." One of the first writers known to apply preen to the human act of primping was Geoffrey Chaucer in The Canterbury Tales. Centuries later (sometime during the late 19th century), the prideful meaning of preen hatched, joining another bird-related word, plume, which was being used with the meaning "to pride or congratulate (oneself)" from the first half of the 17th century.

Feudalism

A political system in which nobles are granted the use of lands that legally belong to their king, in exchange for their loyalty, military service, and protection of the people who live on the land

Concomitant

a phenomenon that naturally accompanies or follows something

Debauched

corrupted

Merriment

high-spirited fun and enjoyment

Idyllic

naturally peaceful

Unpremeditated

not planned in advance

Olfactory (ahl-FAK-tuh-ree)

of or relating to the sense of smell Olfactory derives from the past participle of the Latin olfacere ("to smell"), which was formed from the verb olēre ("to give off a smell") and facere ("to do"). Olfactory is a word that often appears in scientific contexts (as in "olfactory nerves," the nerves that pass from the nose to the brain and contain the receptors that make smelling possible), but it has occasionally branched out into less specialized contexts. The pleasant smell of spring flowers, for example, might be considered an "olfactory delight." A related word, olfaction, is a noun referring to the sense of smell or the act or process of smelling.

Deftly

quickly and skillfully

Occident (AHK-suh-dunt)

regions or countries lying to the west of a specified or implied point of orientation You may not be reflecting on the history of the word Occident as you watch a beautiful sunset, but there is a connection. Occident, which comes from Latin occidere, meaning "to fall," once referred to the part of the sky in which the sun goes down. Geoffrey Chaucer used the word in that now-obsolete sense around 1390 in The Man of Law's Tale. In an earlier work, The Monk's Tale, which was written circa 1375, he used the word in the "western regions and countries" sense that we still use. Exactly what is meant by "western" is not always the same. Originally, Occident referred to western Europe or the Western Roman Empire. In modern times, it usually refers to some portion of Europe and North America as distinct from Asia. The opposite of Occident is Orient, which comes from Latin oriri ("to rise").

Gustatory (GUSS-tuh-tor-ee)

relating to or associated with eating or the sense of taste Gustatory is a member of a finite set of words that describe the senses with which we encounter our world, the other members being visual, aural, olfactory, and tactile. Like its peers, gustatory has its roots in Latin—in this case, the Latin word gustare, meaning "to taste." Gustare is a somewhat distant relative of several common English words, among them choose and disgust, but it is a direct ancestor of gustatory, gustation, meaning "the act or sensation of tasting," and degustation, meaning "the action or an instance of tasting especially in a series of small portions."

Exagitate

stir up, agitate

Proboscises

the nose of a mammal

Dissuaded

to deter by advice or persuasion; persuade not to do something

Ennobled

to elevate in degree, excellence, or respect; dignify; exalt

东西

我要买很多东西。 I want to buy a lot of things. dōngxi Wǒ yào mǎi hěnduō dōngxi. Object; Thing

每

每个学生都有书。 Every student has a book. měi Měi gè xuésheng dōu yǒu shū. Every

Magnalia

['With plural agreement. Great or wonderful things; marvels (esp. of nature). Also rarely in plural.']

Stopgap

a temporary solution

Interring

burying, putting into a tomb or grave, planting, enshrining

Agglomerated

collect or form into a mass or group

Dissension

disagreement, sharp difference of opinion

Incensed

very angry; enraged

Exhort (ig-ZORT)

1 : to incite by argument or advice : urge strongly 2 : to give warnings or advice : make urgent appeals Exhort is a 15th-century coinage. It derives from the Latin verb hortari, meaning "to incite," and it often implies the ardent urging or admonishing of an orator or preacher. English speakers apparently took to the root hort, fiddling around with different prefixes to create other words similar in meaning to exhort. They came up with adhort (meaning the same as exhort) and dehort (a word similar to exhort and adhort but with a more specific meaning of "to dissuade"). Adhort all but vanished after the 17th century. Dehort had a slightly better run than adhort, but it is now considered archaic.

Wheedle (WEE-dul)

1 : to influence or entice by soft words or flattery 2 : to gain or get by coaxing or flattering 3 : to use soft words or flattery Wheedle has been a part of the English lexicon since the mid-17th century, though no one is quite sure how the word made its way into English. (It has been suggested that the term may have derived from an Old English word that meant "to beg," but this is far from certain.) Once established in the language, however, wheedle became a favorite of some of the language's most illustrious writers. Wheedle and its related forms appear in the writings of Wordsworth, Dickens, Kipling, Dryden, Swift, Scott, Tennyson, and Pope, among others.

Adjudicate (uh-JOO-dih-kayt)

1 : to make an official decision about who is right in (a dispute) : to settle judicially 2 : to act as judge Adjudicate is one of several terms that give testimony to the influence of jus, the Latin word for "law," on our legal language. Adjudicate is from the Latin verb adjudicare, from judicare, meaning "to judge," which, in turn, traces to the Latin noun judex, meaning "judge." English has other judex words, such as judgment, judicial, judiciary, and prejudice. If we admit further evidence, we discover that the root of judex is jus. What's the verdict? Latin "law" words frequently preside in English-speaking courtrooms. In addition to the judex words, jury, justice, injury, and perjury are all ultimately from Latin jus.

Complementary

(adj) completing; fitting together well; filling mutual needs

Piecemeal

(adj) one piece at a time; (adv) gradually

Slack

(adj, v, n) loose, negligent, lazy, weak (adj); neglect to do one's duties; loosen up, relax (verb); period of little work (noun)

Abreast

Side-by-side. The more common "abreast of" means keeping up with, staying aware of, or remaining equal in progress with.

Excoriation

Skin sore or abrasion produced by scratching or scraping; censure or criticism

Fankle

['A tangle. Frequently in extended use: a confused or muddled state; a predicament. Esp. in in (or into) a fankle.']

Plaintiff

a person who brings a case against another in a court of law.

Unkempt

not combed; untidy; not properly maintained; unpolished, rude

Fulcrum (FULL-krum)

1 a : prop; specifically : the support about which a lever turns b : one that supplies capability for action 2 : a part of an animal that serves as a hinge or support Fulcrum, a word that means "bedpost" in Latin, derives from the verb fulcire, which means "to prop." When the word fulcrum was used in the 17th century, it referred to the point on which a lever or similar device (such as the oar of a boat) is supported. It did not take long for the word to develop a figurative sense referring to something used as a spur or justification to support a certain action. In zoology, fulcrum can also refer to a part of an animal that serves as a hinge or support, such as the joint supporting a bird's wing.

Respite (RESS-pit)

1 : a period of temporary delay 2 : an interval of rest or relief Respite is first known to have been used at the turn of the 14th century to refer to a delay or extension asked for or granted for a specific reason—to give someone time to deliberate on a proposal, for example. Such a respite offered an opportunity for the kind of consideration inherent in the word's etymology. Respite traces from the Latin term respectus (also the source of English's respect), which comes from respicere, a verb with both concrete and abstract meanings: "to turn around to look at" or "to regard." Within a few decades of its earliest known use, English speakers had granted respite the sense we use most often today—"a welcome break."

Suffrage

1 : a short intercessory prayer usually in a series 2 : a vote given in deciding a controverted question or electing a person for an office or trust 3 : the right of voting : franchise; also : the exercise of such right Why would a 17th-century writer warn people that a chapel was only for "private or secret suffrages"? Because suffrage has been used since the 14th century to mean "prayer" (especially a prayer requesting divine help or intercession). So how did suffrage come to mean "a vote" or "the right to vote"? To answer that, we must look to the word's Medieval Latin ancestor, suffrāgium, which can be translated as meaning "vote," "support," or "prayer." That term produced descendants in a number of languages, and English picked up its senses of suffrage from two different places. We took the "prayer" sense from a Middle French suffrāgium offspring that emphasized the word's spiritual aspects, and we elected to adopt the "voting" senses directly from the original

Multitudinous

1 : including a multitude of individuals : populous 2 : existing in a great multitude 3 : existing in or consisting of innumerable elements or aspects Multitudinous is one of many English words that make use of the combining form multi-, from Latin multus, meaning "much" or "many." Multicolor, multifunction, and multimillionaire are just a few of the others. Multitudinous is the kind of highly expressive word that you can rely upon when you want something a little more emphatic than plain old numerous. Among its synonyms are multiple and multifold, two more members of the multi- family.

Sacrosanct

1 : most sacred or holy : inviolable 2 : treated as if holy : immune from criticism or violation That which is sacrosanct is doubly sacred. Sacrosanct is derived from the Latin sacrosanctus, which is probably from the phrase sacro sanctus ("hallowed by a sacred rite"). The first element of this phrase, sacro, is the ablative case of sacrum ("a sacred rite") and means "by a sacred rite" (sacrum lives on in English anatomy as the name for our pelvic vertebrae—a shortening of os sacrum, which literally means "holy bone"). The second element, sanctus, is the past participle of the Latin sancire, which means "to make sacred." Sanctus has also given English the words saint, sanctimony, sanctify, and sanctuary.

Thwart

1 a : to oppose successfully : defeat the hopes or aspirations of b : to run counter to so as to effectively oppose or baffle : contravene 2 : to pass through or across Thwart and its synonyms foil and frustrate all suggest checking or defeating another's plan or preventing the achievement of a goal. Foil implies checking or defeating so as to discourage future efforts ("the police foiled the attempted robbery"), while frustrate suggests making all efforts, however vigorous or persistent, futile or ineffectual ("frustrated attempts at government reform"). Thwart usually indicates frustration caused by opposition ("the army thwarted an attempted coup").

Burgeon (BER-jun)

1 a : to send forth new growth (such as buds or branches) : sprout b : bloom 2 : to grow and expand rapidly : flourish Burgeon first appeared in Middle English as burjonen—a borrowing from the Anglo-French burjuner, meaning "to bud or sprout." Burgeon is often used figuratively, as when writer P. G. Wodehouse used it in the 1946 novel Joy in the Morning: "I weighed this. It sounded promising. Hope began to burgeon." Usage commentators have objected to the use of burgeon to mean "to flourish" or "to grow rapidly," insisting that any figurative use should stay true to the word's earliest literal meaning and distinguish budding or sprouting from subsequent growing. But the sense of burgeon that indicates growing or expanding and prospering (as in "the burgeoning music scene" or "the burgeoning international market") has been in established use for decades and is, in fact, the most common use of burgeon today.

dainty (adj) daintily (adv) daintiness (n)

1. delicately small and pretty. "a dainty lace handkerchief" 2. fastidious or difficult to please, typically concerning food. "a dainty appetite" 3. something good to eat; a delicacy. "home-made breads, jams, and dainties"

Lax

careless or negligent

小费

中国的服务员不习惯收小费。 Chinese service people are not used to receiving tips. xiǎofèi Zhōngguó de fúwùyuán bù xíguàn shōu xiǎofèi. tip; gratuity

Lithe

(adj.) bending easily, limber

Raucous

(adj.) disagreeably harsh-sounding; disorderly

Doyen

1 a : the senior member of a body or group b : a person considered to be knowledgeable or uniquely skilled as a result of long experience in some field of endeavor 2 : the oldest example of a category English picked up doyen from French in the 17th century. The French word in turn comes, via the Old French deien, from the Late Latin word decanus, which itself comes from the Greek dekanos, meaning "chief of ten." A doyen can be a leader of a group, such as a diplomatic corps. In this regard, the word has been used to refer to someone who is specifically or tacitly allowed to speak for that group. More broadly, a doyen refers to a highly skilled and respected veteran of a particular field. The feminine form of doyen is doyenne.

Mayhem

1 a : willful and permanent deprivation of a bodily member resulting in the impairment of a person's fighting ability b : willful and permanent crippling, mutilation, or disfigurement of any part of the body 2 : needless or willful damage or violence Legally speaking, mayhem refers to the gruesome crime of deliberately causing an injury that permanently disfigures another. The name derives via Middle English from the Anglo-French verb maheimer ("to maim") and is probably of Germanic origin; the English verb maim comes from the same ancestor. The disfigurement sense of mayhem first appeared in English in the 15th century. By the 19th century the word had come to mean any kind of violent behavior; nowadays, mayhem can be used to suggest any kind of chaos or disorder, as in "there was mayhem in the streets during the citywide blackout."

Incipient (in-SIP-ee-unt)

beginning to come into being or to become apparent A good starting point for any investigation of incipient is the Latin verb incipere, which means "to begin." Incipient emerged in English in the 17th century, appearing in both religious and scientific contexts, as in "incipient grace" and "incipient putrefaction." Later came the genesis of two related nouns, incipiency and incipience, both of which are synonymous with beginning. Incipere also stands at the beginning of the words inception ("an act, process, or instance of beginning") and incipit, a term that literally means "it begins" and which was used for the opening words of a medieval text. Incipere itself derives from another Latin verb, capere, which means "to take" or "to seize."

Ergonomic

intended to decrease discomfort and maximize work

Moribund

(of a person) at the point of death. "on examination she was moribund and dehydrated" (of a thing) in terminal decline; lacking vitality or vigor. "the moribund commercial property market"

Transitive (Logic)

(of a relation) such that, if it applies between successive members of a sequence, it must also apply between any two members taken in order. For instance, if A is larger than B, and B is larger than C, then A is larger than C.

Albatross

(two meanings) a seabird; a constant burden

Abate

(v.) to make less in amount, degree, etc.; to subside, become less; to nullify; to deduct, omit

Pulchritude

(n.) physical beauty (Several of Shakespeare's sonnets explore the pulchritude of a lovely young man.)

Enormity

(n.) the quality of exceeding all moral bounds; an exceedingly evil act; huge size, immensity

Lassitude

(n.) weariness of body or mind, lack of energy

Goad

(v.) to drive or urge on; (n.) something used to drive or urge on (a spiked stick used for driving cattle.)

Contraposition

A placing opposite.

Rancorous

bitter, hateful

Retrograde

moving backward; becoming worse

Lurk

to sneak; to lie hidden or in wait

Bathetic (buh-THET-ik)

characterized by triteness or sentimentalism When English speakers turned apathy into apathetic in the late 17th century, using the suffix -etic to turn the noun into the adjective, they were inspired by pathetic, the adjectival form of pathos, from Greek pathētikos. People also applied that bit of linguistic transformation to coin bathetic. English speakers added the suffix -etic to bathos, the Greek word for "depth," which in English has come to mean "triteness" or "excessive sentimentalism." The result: the ideal adjective for the incredibly commonplace or the overly sentimental.

Intestine (in-TESS-tin) [adjective]

internal; specifically : of or relating to the internal affairs of a state or country We bet you thought intestine was a noun referring to a part of the digestive system! It is, of course, but naming that internal body part isn't the word's only function. Both the noun and the adjective intestine have been a part of English since the 15th century, and both trace to the Latin adjective intestinus, meaning "internal," and ultimately to intus, meaning "within." Though the adjective intestine turns up much less frequently than does its anatomical cousin, it does see occasional use, especially as a synonym for civil and domestic (in contrast to foreign) applied to wars and disturbances.

Celerity

swiftness, rapidity of motion or action - Celerity of movement is vital in war.

Seder (SAY-der)

: a Jewish home or community service including a ceremonial dinner held on the first or first and second evenings of the Passover in commemoration of the exodus from Egypt Order and ritual are very important in the seder—so important that they are even reflected in its name: the English word seder is a transliteration of a Hebrew word (sēdher) that means "order." The courses in the meal, as well as blessings, prayers, stories, and songs, are recorded in the Haggadah, a book that lays out the order of the Passover feast and recounts the story of the Exodus. Each food consumed as part of the seder recalls an aspect of the Exodus. For instance, matzo (unleavened bread) represents the haste with which the Israelites fled ancient Egypt; maror (a mix of bitter herbs) recalls the bitterness of life as a slave; and a mixture of fruits and nuts called haroseth (or haroset/haroses or charoseth/charoset/charoses) symbolizes the clay or mortar the Israelites worked with as slaves.

Cowcatcher (KOW-ketch-er)

: an inclined frame on the front of a railroad locomotive for throwing obstacles off the track New Jersey's Camden and Amboy Railroad was the first in the U.S. to adopt the cowcatcher, adding it to its John Bull locomotive in the early 1830s. But, as the Model Railroader Cyclopedia warned, "don't ever let a railroad man hear you use 'cowcatcher.'" In its heyday, railroad workers preferred the name pilot for that v-shaped frame. In the 1940s and '50s, cowcatcher jumped the tracks and took on a new life in TV and radio advertising jargon. The term was used for a commercial that was aired immediately before a program and that advertised a secondary product of the program's sponsor. Such ads apparently got the name because they "went in front."

Bildungsroman (BIL-doonks-roh-mahn)

a novel about the moral and psychological growth of the main character Bildungsroman is the combination of two German words: Bildung, meaning "education," and Roman, meaning "novel." Fittingly, a bildungsroman is a novel that deals with the formative years of the main character, and in particular, with the character's psychological development and moral education. The bildungsroman usually ends on a positive note, with the hero's foolish mistakes and painful disappointments over, and a life of usefulness ahead. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's late 18th-century work Wilhelm Meisters Lehrjahre (Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship) is often cited as the classic example of a bildungsroman. Though the term is primarily applied to novels, in recent years some English speakers have begun to apply it to films that deal with a youthful character's coming-of-age.

Dodger

a person who engages in cunning tricks or dishonest practices to avoid something unpleasant; (Nautical) a canvas screen on a ship giving protection from spray; a small handbill or leaflet

Spoonerism

a transposition of usually initial sounds of two or more words (as in tons of soil for sons of toil) Poor William Archibald Spooner! That British clergyman and educator, who lived from 1844 to 1930, often had to speak in public, but he was a nervous man and his tongue frequently got tangled up. He would say things like "a blushing crow" when he meant "a crushing blow." Spooner's sound reversals became the stuff of legend—and undoubtedly gave his listeners many a laugh. By the end of the 19th century, his name had inspired the term spoonerism, which lives on to this day.

Cubit (KYOO-bit)

any of various ancient units of length based on the length of the forearm from the elbow to the tip of the middle finger and usually equal to about 18 inches (46 centimeters) The cubit is an ancient unit of length that may have originated in Egypt close to 5,000 years ago. Cubit can refer to various units used in the ancient world, the actual length of which varied from time to time and place to place, but which was generally equivalent to the length of the human arm from elbow to fingertip—roughly about a foot and a half. (Appropriately, the word's source is a Latin word meaning "elbow.") Starting with the Wycliffe Bible in 1382, cubit has been used as the English translation for the measurement known in Biblical Hebrew as the "ammah" and in Koine as the "péchus."

Hornswoggle (HORN-swah-gul)

bamboozle, hoax Hornswoggle is a slang word of some considerable mystery, at least where its etymology is concerned. The word appears to have originated in the southern United States in the early 19th century. The earliest known written record comes from an 1829 issue of The Virginia Literary Magazine in its glossary of Americanisms. The magazine states that hornswoggle came from Kentucky, and its oddness matches nicely with other 19th-century Americanisms, such as sockdolager, absquatulate, callithump, slumgullion, and skedaddle. While the exact point at which hornswoggle entered our language, and the way in which it was formed, may remain unknown, it is a charming addition to our language, joining bamboozle and honeyfuggle as colorful ways to say "to deceive."

Debauch

destroy or debase the moral purity of; corrupt. "he has debauched the morals of the people and endeavored to corrupt parliament" a bout of excessive indulgence in sensual pleasures, especially eating and drinking. "Patrick looked utterly untouched by the previous night's debauch"

Deleterious (del-uh-TEER-ee-us)

harmful often in a subtle or unexpected way Pernicious, baneful, noxious, and detrimental are the wicked synonyms of deleterious. All five words refer to something exceedingly harmful. Of the group, deleterious is most often used for something that is unexpectedly harmful. Pernicious implies irreparable harm done by something that degrades or undermines in an evil or insidious way ("the pernicious effects of corruption"), while baneful suggests injury through poisoning or destruction ("the baneful consequences of war"). Noxious can apply to anything that is both offensive and injurious to the health of body or mind ("noxious chemical fumes"), and detrimental implies an obvious harmfulness to something specified ("the detrimental effects of excessive drinking").

Malapert (mal-uh-PERT)

impudently bold : saucy Malapert debuted in English in the 15th century, was a favorite of Shakespeare, and is still used sporadically today. The prefix mal-, meaning "bad" or "badly" and deriving from the Latin malus, is found in many English words, including malevolent and malefactor. The second half of malapert comes from the Middle English apert, meaning "open" or "frank." Apert further derives from the Latin word apertus ("open"), which gave us our noun aperture (meaning "an opening"). Putting the two halves together gives us a word that describes someone or something that is open or honest in a bad way—that is, in a way that is rudely bold. The noun malapert also exists and means "a bold or impudent person."

Inchmeal

little by little, gradually "All the infections that the sun sucks up / From bogs, fens, flats, on Prosper fall, and make him / By inch-meal a disease!" So goes one of the curses the hated and hateful Caliban hurls in the direction of Prospero in Shakespeare's The Tempest. The origin of inchmeal is simple; the inch half is the familiar measurement, and the meal is the suffix we know from the more common word piecemeal (which shares the "gradually" meaning of inchmeal, and has several other meanings as well). An old suffix that means "by a (specified) portion or measure at a time," -meal is related to the modern German word mal, meaning "time," as in the German word manchmal, meaning "sometimes."

Exculpate (EK-skull-payt)

to clear from alleged fault or guilt You need not take the blame if you're unfamiliar with the origins of exculpate, and we would be glad to enlighten you, if that's the case. The word, which was adopted in the 17th century from Medieval Latin exculpatus, traces back to the Latin noun culpa, meaning "blame." Some other descendants of culpa in English include culpable ("meriting condemnation or blame") and inculpate ("incriminate"), as well as the considerably rarer culpatory ("accusing") and disculpate (a synonym of exculpate). You may also be familiar with the borrowed Latin phrase mea culpa, which translates directly as "through my fault" and is used in English to mean "a formal acknowledgment of personal fault or error."

Mirandize (muh-RAN-dyze)

to recite the Miranda warnings to (a person under arrest) "You have the right to remain silent...." These seven words typically begin the notification that police recite to inform a suspect of his or her rights while in custody. The law requiring this recitation stemmed from a 1966 U.S. Supreme Court decision (Miranda v. Arizona) in which the court overturned the conviction of Ernesto A. Miranda on charges of rape and kidnapping. The court had determined that Miranda confessed to the crime without being informed that he could remain silent during questioning. The list of rights that must be recited to a suspect in custody subsequently became known as "the Miranda warnings." And by the 1970s, people began using the verb Mirandize in reference to such a recitation.

Revivification

to restore to life; give new life to; revive; reanimate

Biddable (BID-uh-bul)

1 : easily led, taught, or controlled : docile 2 : capable of being bid A biddable individual is someone you can issue an order to—that is, someone who will do your bidding. The word dates to the late 18th century, and currently our earliest evidence for it is a quote in the Scottish National Dictionary. There are a number of words in English that do what biddable does. Tractable, amenable, and docile are three of them. Biddable is often applied to children and indicates a ready, constant inclination to follow orders, requests, and suggestions. Tractable suggests characteristics that make for easy guiding, leading, ordering, or managing; its antonym intractable (as in "intractable problems") is more common. Amenable indicates a disposition to be agreeable or complaisant as well as a lack of assertive independence. Docile can stress a disposition to submit, either due to guidance and control or to imposition and oppression.

Docile (DAH-sul)

1 : easily taught 2 : easily led or managed : tractable Docile students can make teaching a lot easier. Nowadays, calling students "docile" indicates they aren't trouble-makers; however, there's more than just good behavior connecting docility to teachability. The original meaning of docile is more to the point: "readily absorbing something taught." "The docile mind may soon thy precepts know," rendered Ben Jonson, for example, in a 17th-century translation of the Roman poet Horace. Docile comes from Latin docēre, which means "to teach." Other descendants of docēre include doctrine (which can mean "something that is taught"), document (an early meaning of which was "instruction"), and doctor and docent (both of which can refer to college teachers).

Disavow (dis-uh-VOW)

1 : to deny responsibility for : repudiate 2 : to refuse to acknowledge or accept : disclaim If you trace the etymology of disavow back through Middle English to Anglo-French, you'll arrive eventually at the prefix des- and the verb avouer, meaning "to avow." The prefix des-, in turn, derives from the Latin prefix dis-, meaning "apart." That Latin prefix plays a significant role in many current English words, including disadvantage, disappoint, and disagree. Avouer is from Latin advocare, meaning "to summon," and is also the source of our word advocate.

Headlong

1 : with the head foremost 2 : without deliberation : recklessly 3 : without pause or delay Headlong appeared in Middle English as hedlong, an alteration of the older hedling. Hedling is a combination of the Middle English hed ("head") and -ling, an adverb suffix which means "in such a direction or manner." Thus, hedling originally meant "with the head foremost" or, if you will, "in the direction of the head." By the late 1400s, influenced by its use in the compound word endlong, the adjective long began to be regarded as a suffix and a variant of -ling. It was this substitution of -ling with -long that led to the replacement of words like sideling and headling with the now more familiar sidelong and headlong.

Inanity

foolishness; shallowness

Heraldry

the system by which coats of arms [A coat of arms is a symbol used to identify families or individuals. It is a detailed design that often includes a shield, crest, helmet, motto, and more. The image could be used as a whole, or the crest can be used as a simplified symbol.] and other armorial bearings are devised, described, and regulated. A coat of arms is a heraldic visual design on an escutcheon (i.e., shield), surcoat, or tabard. The coat of arms on an escutcheon forms the central element of the full heraldic achievement which in its whole consists of: shield, supporters, crest, and motto. A coat of arms is traditionally unique to an individual person, family, state, organization or corporation. armorial bearings or other heraldic symbols

Latter-day

(a) used to describe someone or something that is a modern equivalent of a person or thing in the past / (과거 것의) 현대판인

一。hello 二。Goodbye 三。name 四。big 五。Student; to be born 六。word 七。what 八。I; me 九。small 十。moon

1. 你好。 2. 再见。 3. 名字；字 4. 大 5. 生 6. 话；字 7. 什么 8. 我 9. 小 10. 月

Lithosphere

Lithosphere, rigid, rocky outer layer of the Earth, consisting of the crust and the solid outermost layer of the upper mantle. It extends to a depth of about 60 miles (100 km). It is broken into about a dozen separate, rigid blocks, or plates (see plate tectonics). Slow convection currents deep within the mantle, generated by radioactive heating of the interior, are believed to cause the lateral movements of the plates (and the continents that rest on top of them) at a rate of several inches per year.

Noodge, v.

['transitive. To pester, to nag at. Also intransitive: to whine, to complain persistently.']

Poultices

a soft, moist mass of material, typically of plant material or flour, applied to the body to relieve soreness and inflammation and kept in place with a cloth.

Ruminant

an even-toed ungulate [a hoofed mammal] mammal that chews the cud [food brought up into the mouth] regurgitated from its rumen [the large first compartment of the stomach of a ruminant in which cellulose is broken down by the action of symbiotic microorganisms]. The ruminants comprise the cattle, sheep, antelopes, deer, giraffes, and their relatives. a contemplative person; a person given to meditation.

Brazen

bold and without shame; Made of Brass

Abysmal

very bad, bottomless/limitless

找

我要找一本汉英词典。 I am looking for a Chinese-English dictionary. zhǎo Wǒ yào zhǎo yī běn hànyīng cídiǎn. to look for

Epithet (EP-uh-thet)

1 : a characterizing word or phrase accompanying or occurring in place of the name of a person or thing 2 : a disparaging or abusive word or phrase 3 : the part of a taxonomic name identifying a subordinate unit within a genus Nowadays, epithet is usually used negatively, with the meaning "a derogatory word or phrase," but it wasn't always that way. Epithet comes to us via Latin from the Greek noun epitheton and ultimately derives from epitithenai, meaning "to put on" or "to add." In its oldest sense, an epithet is simply a descriptive word or phrase, especially one joined by fixed association to the name of someone or something (as in "Peter the Great" or the stock Homeric phrases "gray-eyed Athena" and "wine-dark sea"). Alternatively, epithets may be used in place of a name (as in "the Peacemaker" or "the Eternal"). These neutral meanings of epithet are still in use, but today the word is more often used in its negative "term of disparagement" sense.

Duress (dur-RESS)

1 : forcible restraint or restriction 2 : compulsion by threat; specifically : unlawful constraint Duress is a word of hardy stock. It has been a part of the English language since the 14th century and has a number of long-lived relatives. Duress itself came into Middle English through the Anglo-French duresce (meaning "hardness" or "severity"), which stems from Latin durus, meaning "hard." Some obvious relatives of this robust root are durable, endure and obdurate (meaning "unyielding" or "hardened in feelings"). Some others are dour (meaning "harsh," "unyielding," or "gloomy") and the preposition during.

Impregnable (im-PREG-nuh-bul)

1 : incapable of being taken by assault : unconquerable 2 : unassailable; also : impenetrable Impregnable is one of the many English words that bear a French ancestry, thanks to the Norman conquest of England in 1066. It derives from the Middle French verb prendre, which means "to take or capture." Combining prendre with various prefixes has given our language many other words, too, including surprise, reprise, and enterprise. Remarkably, impregnable has a different origin from the similar-looking word pregnant; that word comes from a different Latin word, praegnas, meaning "carrying a fetus."

Otiose (Oh-shee-ohss)

1 : producing no useful result : futile 2 : being at leisure : idle 3 : lacking use or effect : functionless Otiose was first used in English in the late-18th century to describe things producing no useful result. By mid-19th century, it was being used in keeping with its Latin source otiosus, meaning "at leisure." There is also the noun form otiosity, which predates otiose by approximately three centuries. That noun is rarely found in writing today, but it makes an appearance on the occasional spelling bee word list.

Pleonasm (PLEE-uh-naz-um)

1 : the use of more words than those necessary to denote mere sense (as in the man he said) : redundancy 2 : an instance or example of pleonasm Pleonasm, which stems (via Late Latin) from the Greek verb pleonazein, meaning "to be excessive," is a fancy word for "redundancy." It's related to our words plus and plenty, and ultimately it goes back to the Greek word for "more," which is pleōn. Pleonasm is commonly considered a fault of style, but it can also serve a useful function. "Extra" words can sometimes be helpful to a speaker or writer in getting a message across, adding emphasis, or simply adding an appealing sound and rhythm to a phrase—as, for example, with the pleonasm "I saw it with my own eyes!"

Stanch (pronounced STAUNCH)

1 : to check or stop the flowing of; also : to stop the flow of blood from (a wound) 2 a : to stop or check in its course b : to make watertight : stop up The verb stanch has a lot in common with the adjective staunch, meaning "steadfast." Not only do both words derive from the Anglo-French word estancher (which has the same meaning as stanch), but the spelling "s-t-a-n-c-h" is sometimes used for the adjective, and the spelling "s-t-a-u-n-c-h" is sometimes used for the verb. Although both spelling variants have been in reputable use for centuries and both are perfectly standard for either the verb or adjective, stanch is the form used most often for the verb and staunch is the most common variant for the adjective.

Lèse-majesté (layz-MAJ-uh-stee)

1 a : a crime (such as treason) committed against a sovereign power b : an offense violating the dignity of a ruler as the representative of a sovereign power 2 : a detraction from or affront to dignity or importance Lèse-majesté (or lese majesty, as it is also styled in English publications) comes into English by way of Middle French, from the Latin laesa majestas, which literally means "injured majesty." The English term can conceivably cover any offense against a sovereign power or its ruler, from treason to a simple breach of etiquette. Lèse-majesté has also acquired a more lighthearted or ironic meaning, referring to an insult or impudence to a particularly pompous or self-important person or organization. As such, it may be applied to a relatively inoffensive act that has been exaggeratedly treated as if it were a great affront.

Longueur (lawn-GUR)

: a dull and tedious passage or section (as of a book, play, or musical composition) — usually used in plural You've probably come across long, tedious sections of books, plays, or musical works before, but perhaps you didn't know there was a word for them. English speakers began using the French borrowing longueur in the late 18th century. As in English, French longueurs are tedious passages, with longueur itself literally meaning "length." An early example of longueur used in an English text is from 18th-century writer Horace Walpole, who wrote in a letter, "Boswell's book is gossiping; . . . but there are woful longueurs, both about his hero and himself."

Pygmies

A pitiable or unfavorable person; a small person or being; member of certain peoples of very short stature in equatorial Africa and parts of Southeast Asia

Equivocal

Ambiguous; intentionally misleading

Infestive

Likely to infest; mirthless

Whet

To stimulate, sharpen, put an edge on; to make keen or eager

Garboil, n.

['Confusion, turmoil; disturbance, tumult; discord, controversy. Also: an instance or state of confusion, disturbance, discord, etc.; a disorderly or tumultuous event.']

Knaves

a dishonest or unscrupulous person

Musket (MUSS-kut)

a heavy large-caliber muzzle-loading usually smoothbore shoulder firearm; broadly : a shoulder gun carried by infantry In the early era of firearms, cannons of lesser size such as the falconet were sometimes named for birds of prey. Following this pattern, Italians applied moschetto or moschetta, meaning "sparrow hawk," to a small-caliber piece of ordnance in the 16th century. Spaniards borrowed this word as mosquete, and the French as mosquet, but both applied it to a heavy shoulder firearm rather than a cannon; English musket was borrowed soon thereafter from French. The word musket was retained after the original matchlock firing mechanism was replaced by a wheel lock, and retained still after the wheel lock was replaced by the flintlock. As the practice of rifling firearms—incising the barrel with spiral grooves to improve the bullet's accuracy—became more common, the term musket gradually gave way to the newer word rifle in the 18th century.

Cultivars

a plant variety that has been produced in cultivation by selective breeding

Modicum

a small amount

Billingsgate (BIL-ingz-gayt)

coarsely abusive language From its beginnings during the time of the Roman occupation, the Billingsgate fish market in London, England, has been notorious for the crude language that has resounded through its stalls. In fact, the fish merchants of Billingsgate were so famous for their swearing centuries ago that their feats of vulgar language were recorded in British chronicler Raphael Holinshed's 1577 account of King Leir (which was probably William Shakespeare's source for King Lear). In Holinshed's volume, a messenger's language is said to be "as bad a tongue ... as any oyster-wife at Billingsgate hath." By the middle of the 17th century, billingsgate had become a byword for foul language.

Ochlocracy (Mobocracy)

government by a mob; mob rule

Kakistocracy

government by the least suitable or competent citizens of a state

Acrimony

ill-natured, bitter hostility

Natty

neat; dapper; smart

Dilettante

one who merely dabbles in an art or a science

Pettifogging

placing undue emphasis on petty details

Funereal

sad; solemn; suitable for a funeral

Priggish

self-righteously moralistic and superior; conceited

Sagacity

shrewdness, soundness of perspective

Walloped

strike or hit (someone or something) very hard.

Query

to ask, inquire

Exsiccate

to dry up or cause to dry up

Imperil

to endanger

Calumniated

to make false and malicious statements about; slander

Gentrified

very or excessively refined and elegant The process of transforming a lower-class area into a middle-class enclave through property rehabilitation.

一。to be in, on, at 二。to go out or come out 三。to be born 四。the particle for possession (to possess something) 五。birthday 六。你的生日是几月记号？ 七。你在哪年出生？ 八。你在哪年出生？（Answer in Chinese）

一。在 二。出 (chu) 三。出生 (chu sheng) 四。的 五。生日 六。What is your birthday? 七。Which year were you born? 八。我在【year】年出生.

身体

他每天锻炼身体。 He exercises his body every day. shēntǐ Tā měitiān duànliàn shēntǐ. body

睡觉

我很晚睡觉。 I sleep very late. shuìjiào Wǒ hěn wǎn shuìjiào.

Deleatur

'intransitive. 'Let it be deleted': used as an instruction to indicate that a word, sentence, etc., should be deleted from a page or text. (google the image of the Deleatur- it isn't too hard to draw, and it's useful) It is an obelism [Obelism is the practice of annotating manuscripts with marks set in the margins. Modern obelisms are used by editors when proofreading a manuscript or typescript. Examples are "stet" (which is Latin for "Let it stand", used in this context to mean "disregard the previous mark") and "dele" (for "Delete")]

Stodgy

(adj.) dull, boring; old-fashioned, hidebound; lumpy, thick

Prosaic

(adj.) dull, lacking in distinction and originality; matter-of-fact, straightforward; characteristic of prose, not poetic

Facile

(adj.) easily done or attained; superficial; ready, fluent; easily shown but not sincerely felt

Nominal

(adj.) existing in name only, not real; too small to be considered or taken seriously

Skittish

(adj.) extremely nervous and easily frightened; shy or timid; extremely cautious; unstable, undependable

Virulent

(adj.) extremely poisonous; full of malice; spiteful

Sartorial

(adj.) of or pertaining to a tailor or his work; having to do with clothes or dress (especially men's)

Imperious

(adj.) overbearing, arrogant; seeking to dominate; pressing, compelling

Bedazzled

(v) greatly impress (someone) with brilliance or skill.

Outstrip

(v) surpass, exceed; be larger or better than; leave behind

Grovel

(v) to humble oneself, act in a fearful and servile way; to lie face downward; to indulge in something base or unworthy

Aver

(v.) to affirm, declare confidently

Transmute

(v.) to change from one nature, substance, or form to another

Dissent

(v.) to disagree; (n.) disagreement

Reconnoiter (rekəˈnoidər)

(v.) to engage in reconnaissance; to make a preliminary inspection

Explicate

(v.) to make plain or clear, explain; to interpret

Utmost (Ut-mohst)

1 : situated at the farthest or most distant point : extreme 2 : of the greatest or highest degree, quantity, number, or amount Utmost traces back to the Old English ūtmest, a superlative adjective formed from the adverb ūt, meaning "out." Ūtmest eventually evolved into utmost, perhaps influenced by the spelling of the word most. Not surprisingly, the earlier sense of utmost carries the same meaning as outermost. The second sense of utmost, meaning "of the greatest or highest degree," first appeared in English in the 14th century. A related word is utter, meaning "absolute" or "total," as in the phrase "utter chaos"; it comes from Old English utera, meaning "outer," and ultimately from ūt.

Wallowing

1. (chiefly of large mammals) roll about or lie relaxed in mud or water, especially to keep cool, avoid biting insects, or spread scent. "watering places where buffalo liked to wallow" 2. (of a person) indulge in an unrestrained way in (something that creates a pleasurable sensation). "I was wallowing in the luxury of the hotel"

Pert

1. (of a girl or young woman) attractively lively or cheeky. "a pert Belgian actress" 2. (of a bodily feature or garment) attractive because neat and jaunty. "she had a pert nose and deep blue eyes" Synonyms: (adj.) high-spirited; lively; bold, saucy; jaunty (having or expressing a lively, cheerful, and self-confident manner. "there was no mistaking that jaunty walk")

Credence

1. belief in or acceptance of something as true. "psychoanalysis finds little credence among laymen" 2. a small side table, shelf, or niche in a church for holding the elements of the Eucharist before they are consecrated. "a credence table"

Dispensations

1. exemption from a rule or usual requirement. "although she was too young, she was given special dispensation to play two matches" 2. - a system of order, government, or organization of a nation, community, etc., especially as existing at a particular time. "scholarship is conveyed to a wider audience than under the old dispensation" - (in Christian theology) a divinely ordained order prevailing at a particular period of history. "the Mosaic dispensation" - ARCHAIC - an act of divine providence. "the laws to which the creator in all his dispensations conforms" 3. the action of distributing or supplying something. "regulations controlling dispensation of medications"

Piques

1. stimulate (interest or curiosity). "you have piqued my curiosity about the man" 2. feel irritated or resentful. "she was piqued by his curtness"

Barrister

A barrister is a type of lawyer in common law jurisdictions. Barristers mostly specialise in courtroom advocacy and litigation. Their tasks include taking cases in superior courts and tribunals, drafting legal pleadings, researching the philosophy, hypothesis and history of law, and giving expert legal opinions

Mishmash

A confused mixture of things.

Dictum

A formal or authoritative statement

Covey

A group; A small flock of birds

Jest

A joke

Sprusado/ Spruce

A person who is smartly dressed In the first look at the Overserved star's latest reality TV venture, Lisa Vanderpump welcomes you to her West Hollywood dog rescue, helps spruce up a pooch or twelve, and, well, encourages you to date your dog.— Halle Kiefer, Vulture, 20 May 2021 As millions of Americans found new ways to spruce up the interiors of their homes during the pandemic, plants took on newfound importance.— John-john Williams Iv, baltimoresun.com, 18 May 2021

Predilection

A preference or special liking for something; a bias in favor of something

Plum

A prize; something good ("It was a plum role, with more onscreen time and a number of long scenes that would allow the actress, usually cast as a vapid ingenue or bombshell, to truly show her dramatic range".)

Primogeniture [ˌprīmōˈjenəˌCHər, ˌprīmōˈjenəˌCHo͝or]

A system of inheritance in which the eldest son in a family received all of his father's land. The nobility remained powerful and owned land, while the 2nd and 3rd sons were forced to seek fortune elsewhere. Many of them turned to the New World for their financial purposes and individual wealth.

Impost

A tax, particularly a tariff or duty on imported goods.

Wile

An act or a means of cunning deception

Unsound

An argument that has at least one false premise

Pulpit

An elevated platform or high reading desk used in preaching or conducting a worship service 2 a: the preaching profession b: a preaching position

Preconcerted/ Preconcert

Arranged or planned in advance

Pratfalls

Because of the many pratfalls that the Jets faced, they had a terrible season last year [Noun] Humiliating defeat or blunder

Knackered (NAK-erd)

British : tired, exhausted Knackered is derived from the past participle of knacker, a slang term meaning "to kill," as well as "to tire, exhaust, or wear out." The origins of the verb knacker are uncertain, but the word is perhaps related to an older noun knacker, which originally referred to a harness-maker or saddlemaker, and later referred to a buyer of animals no longer able to do farm work (or their carcasses) as well as to a buyer of old structures. The origins of the noun knacker, however, remain obscure. Knackered is used on both sides of the Atlantic but is more common among British speakers.

Festivous

Festive

Staunch

Firm and steadfast

Jet set

In journalism, jet set is a term for an international social group of wealthy people who travel the world to participate in social activities unavailable to ordinary people. The term, which replaced "café society", came from the lifestyle of travelling from one stylish or exotic place to another via jet plane.

Eggcorn

In linguistics, an eggcorn is an idiosyncratic substitution of a word or phrase for a word or words that sound similar or identical in the speaker's dialect. The new phrase introduces a meaning that is different from the original but plausible in the same context, such as "old-timers' disease" for "Alzheimer's disease". An eggcorn can be described as an intra-lingual phono-semantic matching, a matching in which the intended word and substitute are from the same language. Together with other types of same-sounding phrases, eggcorns are sometimes also referred to "oronyms". 'Nip it in the bud' is another example.

Indubitably

Indubitably is an adverb that means "impossible to doubt." It has a meaning similar to doubtless and undoubtedly, but it represents a much stronger degree of certainty.

Dulciloquent/ Dulciloquy

Pleasing speech or way of speaking

Arcadian

Rural, rustic, or pastoral, especially suggesting simple, innocent contentment.

Implacability

The state of being unappeasable, irreconcilable; that which cannot be assuaged or mitigated

Vaunted

The verb vaunt has been used since the 15th century with the meaning "to make a vain display of one's own worth or attainments"—in other words, "to brag or boast." Over time, vaunt developed the meaning "to boast of (something)," as in "the promotional flier vaunts the natural beauty of the area," and gave rise to the adjectival form vaunted. The history of vaunt and vaunted leads back to the Latin word vānus, meaning "vain" or "empty." The word vain itself is also a descendant of vānus.

Titanolatry

Worship of, or excessive respect for, power

Permastore

You know this

in articulo mortis

a Latin expression which is used to indicate when someone is at the point of death.

Curmudgeon/ly

a bad-tempered person

Investiture

a ceremony in which a person formally receives the authority and symbols of an office

Pantheon

a group of people held in high esteem for their great achievements "the pantheon of the all-time greats" all the gods of a people or religion collectively. "the deities of the Hindu and Shinto pantheons" (especially in ancient Greece and Rome) a temple dedicated to all the gods. a building in which the illustrious dead of a nation are buried or honored.

Benedict

a newly married man who has long been a bachelor

Pedants

a person who is excessively concerned with minor details and rules or with displaying academic learning

Philistine

a person who is guided by materialism and is disdainful of intellectual or artistic values

Putsch (PUTCH)

a secretly plotted and suddenly executed attempt to overthrow a government In its native Swiss German, putsch originally meant "knock" or "thrust," but these days both German and English speakers use it to refer to the kind of government overthrow also known as a coup d'état or coup. Putsch debuted in English shortly before the tumultuous Kapp Putsch of 1920, in which Wolfgang Kapp and his right-wing supporters attempted to overthrow the German Weimar government. Putsch attempts were common in Weimar Germany, so the word appeared often in the stories of the English journalists who described the insurrections. Adolf Hitler also attempted a putsch (known as the Beer Hall Putsch), but he ultimately gained control of the German government via other means.

Hankering

a yearning for something or to do something

Patrician

an aristocrat

Stanchion (ˈstan(t)SH(ə)n)

any vertical post or rod used as a support

Meretricious

apparently attractive but having in reality no value or integrity; Gaudy

Disputatious

argumentative

Haughty

arrogant, condescending

Vituperations

bitter and abusive language

Philippic

bitter denunciation; tirade

Allusive

characterized by indirect references

Impassioned

characterized by intense emotion

Platitudinous

commonplace

Stygian

dark and forbidding

Decedent

deceased person

Regardless

despite everything Regardless is rather simply derived from the noun regard (meaning "attention" or "concern") plus -less—nothing too shocking about that. But poor regardless became embroiled in a usage scandal through no fault of its own when people began using irregardless as its synonym (probably blending irrespective and regardless). Irregardless originated in dialectal American speech in the early 20th century, and usage commentators have been decrying it since the 1920s, often declaring "there is no such word." Irregardless does exist, of course, but it tends to be used primarily in speech and it is still considered nonstandard. Regardless is preferred.

Abstruse (ub-STROOSS)

difficult to comprehend : recondite Look closely at the following Latin verbs, all of which are derived from the verb trudere ("to push, thrust"): extrudere, intrudere, obtrudere, protrudere. Remove the last two letters of each of these and you get an English descendant whose meaning involves pushing or thrusting. Another trudere offspring, abstrudere, meaning "to push away" or "to conceal," gave English abstrude, meaning "to thrust away," but that 17th-century borrowing has fallen out of use. An abstrudere descendant that has survived is abstruse, an adjective that recalls the meaning of its Latin parent abstrūsus, meaning "concealed."

Unbosom

disclose (one's thoughts or secrets) "she unbosomed herself to a trusty female friend"

Demagogic

emotional manipulation for political gain

Cheesed

exasperate, frustrate, or bore

Calumnies

false and malicious statements; slander

Tony

fashionable, trendy, aristocratic

Convivial

festive, sociable, having fun together, genial

Squalid

filthy, wretched, debased

Ascertain

find (something) out for certain; make sure of

Lackey

follower who carries out another's wishes like a servant; toady

Affinity

fondness; liking; similarity

Flowery

full of elaborate or literary words and phrases

Sardonic

grimly or scornfully mocking, bitterly sarcastic

Warded

guarded, protected

Vitiated

impaired, corrupted, or made ineffective

Woolgathering (WOOL-gath-uh-ring)

indulgence in idle daydreaming Woolgathering once literally referred to the act of gathering loose tufts of wool that had gotten caught on bushes and fences as sheep passed by. As you might imagine, woolgathering was not the most profitable of enterprises; its practitioners must have seemed to wander aimlessly, gaining little for their efforts. In the mid-16th century, woolgathering began to appear in figurative phrases such as "my wits went a woolgathering"—in other words, "my mind went wandering aimlessly." From there, it wasn't long before the word woolgathering came to suggest foolish or purposeless mind-wandering.

Festive

joyous; celebratory; relating to a feast or festival

Desultory

jumping from one thing to another; disconnected

Vacuity

lack of thought or intelligence; empty-headedness.

Pallid

lacking color or liveliness

Affectless

lacking feeling or emotion; indifferent to the suffering of others

Prolix

long-winded and wordy; tending to speak or write in such a way "he found the narrative too prolix and discursive"

Libidinous

lustful

Lascivious

lustful or lewd

Berserk

mad with violent anger; frenzied; madly excited

August

majestic, inspiring admiration and respect

Jumble

mix in a confused way

Lumbering

moving in a slow, heavy, awkward way

Yegg (YEG)

one that breaks open safes to steal : safecracker; also : robber Safecracker first appeared in print in English around 1873, but English speakers evidently felt that they needed a more colorful word for this rather colorful profession. No one is quite sure where yegg came from. Its earliest known use in print is from a 1901 New York Times article. This same article also includes the first known print use of the variant yeggmen. Yegg has always been less common than safecracker, but it still turns up once in a while.

Vulgarian

one who has vulgar tastes and manners

Spendthrift

one who spends money wastefully

Penurious

penny-pinching; excessively thrifty; ungenerous

Gentry

people of good social position, specifically (in the UK) the class of people next below the nobility in position and birth. "a member of the landed gentry" people of a specified class or group. "a New Orleans family of Creole gentry"

Poseur

person who affects an attitude to impress others

Dietetic

pertaining to diet or to the regulation of the use of food

Profligate

recklessly extravagant or wasteful in the use of resources

Resile (rih-ZYLE)

recoil, retract; especially : to return to a prior position Resile is a resilient word: it's been in use in English since the early 1500s. It's also a cousin of resilient, and both words derive from the Latin verb resilire, which means "to jump back" or "recoil." (Resilire, in turn, comes from salire, meaning "to leap.") Resilient focuses on the ability of something to "bounce back" from damage, whereas resile generally applies to someone or something that withdraws from an agreement or "jumps back" from a stated position. Resile is a word that shows up only occasionally in U.S. sources; it is more common in British and especially Australian English.

Climes

regions

Dialectical

relating to discussions; relating to the rules and methods of reasoning; approaching truth in the middle of opposing extremes

Forswearing

renouncing or repudiating

Roving

roaming or wandering

Homologate

sanction, allow; especially : to approve or confirm officially Who needs homologate? We have any number of words that mean "to officially approve something": accredit, affirm, approbate, authorize, certify, confirm, endorse, ratify, sanction, validate, and warrant, to name a few. Homologate has mostly been kept for special occasions. The beauty of homologate is that, etymologically speaking, it's an easy word, consisting as it does of the familiar Greek roots homos, meaning "alike" or "same," and logos, meaning "word" or "speech"—in other words, it suggests saying the same thing. No argument here.

Adust

scorched, burned Adust comes from Latin adustus, the past participle of adūrere ("to set fire to"), a verb formed from the Latin prefix ad- and the verb ūrere ("to burn"). It entered the English language in the early 15th century as a medical term related to the four bodily humors—black bile, blood, phlegm, and yellow bile—which were believed at the time to determine a person's health and temperament. Adust was used to describe a condition of the humors in which they supposedly became heated or combusted. Adust black bile in particular was believed to be a source of melancholy. The association with melancholy gave rise to a sense of adust meaning "of a gloomy appearance or disposition," but that sense is now considered archaic.

Autodidact

self-taught person

Abridged

shortened, usually in reference to a written or spoken work

Iniquitous; Iniquity; iniquities

showing a lack of fairness; wicked; vicious; immoral or grossly unfair behavior; injustices

Vestigial

something in an underdeveloped form

Skinflint

stingy person; miser

Acculturative stress

stress resulting from the need to change and adapt a person's ways to the majority culture

Intransigence

stubbornness; refusal to compromise

Discretionary

subject to one's own judgment

Supplanted

supersede and replace

Voluble

talkative

Recrimination

the act of accusing in return; opposing another charge

Remuneration (rih-myoo-nuh-RAY-shun)

the act or fact of paying an equivalent to for a service, loss, or expense : recompense, pay Our evidence shows remuneration to be most at home in writing that concerns financial matters, especially when large amounts of money—or other forms of compensation—are involved. Whether it's because money is often expressed in numerals, or simply because the "n" and "m" are adjacent to each other on our keyboards, "reMUNeration" often appears misspelled as "reNUMeration." (Renumeration, a very rare word, means "the act of enumerating [counting or listing] again.") It pays to know that the -mun- in remuneration is from Latin munus, meaning "gift," a root it shares with munificent, an adjective which means "very liberal in giving."

Meliorism

the belief that the world tends to improve and that humans can aid its betterment In 1877, British novelist George Eliot believed she had coined meliorist when she wrote, "I don't know that I ever heard anybody use the word 'meliorist' except myself." Her contemporaries credited her with coining both meliorist and meliorism, and one of her letters contains an early documented use of meliorism; however, there is evidence that meliorist had been around decades before she started using it. Whoever coined it did so by drawing on the Latin melior, meaning "better." It is likely that the English coinages were also influenced by another melior descendant, meliorate, a synonym of ameliorate ("to make better or more tolerable") that was introduced to English in the 1500s.

Deportment (dih-PORT-munt)

the manner in which one conducts oneself : behavior Deportment evolved from the verb deport, meaning "to behave especially in accord with a code," which in turn came to us through Middle French from Latin deportare, meaning "to carry away." (You may also know deport as a verb meaning "to send out of the country"; that sense is newer and is derived directly from Latin deportare.) Deportment can simply refer to one's demeanor, or it can refer to behavior formed by breeding or training and often conforming to conventional rules of propriety: "Are you not gratified that I am so rapidly gaining correct ideas of female propriety and sedate deportment?" wrote 17-year-old Emily Dickinson to her brother Austin.

Tacit

unspoken, silent; implied, inferred

Hackneyed

used so often as to lack freshness or originality

Plodding

walking slowly; working slowly at a boring task; uninspired

一。你家住在哪儿？ 二。你家有谁? 三。他爸爸是哪国人？ 四。他上几年级？ 五。他家有几口人？ 六。你家的电话号码是多少？

一。Where are you from? 二。Which one are you? 三。What nationality is your father? 四。What grade are you in? 五。What 六。What is your number?

一。January 二。star 三。period of time 四。week 五。Tuesday 六。day; sky 七。day; sun 八。Sunday 九。today 十。year 十一。this year 十二。to be 十三。number 十四。yesterday 十五。how much; how many 十六。tomorrow 十七。next; bright

一。一月 二。星 三。期 四。星期 五。星期二 六。天 七。日 八。星期日；星期七 九。今天 十。年 十一。今年 十二。是 十三。号 十四。昨天 十五。几 十六。明天 十七。明

Arrant

(adj.) thoroughgoing, out-and-out; shameless, blatant (SYN: egregious, unmitigated)

Leitmotif (LYTE-moh-teef)

1 : a melodic phrase or figure that accompanies the reappearance of an idea, person, or situation in a music drama 2 : a dominant recurring theme The English word leitmotif (or leitmotiv, as it is also spelled) comes from the German Leitmotiv, meaning "leading motive," and is formed from the verb leiten ("to lead") and the noun Motiv ("motive"). In its original sense, the word applies to opera music; it was first used by writers interpreting the works of composer Richard Wagner, who was famous for associating a melody with a character or important dramatic element. Leitmotif is still commonly used with reference to music and musical drama but it is now also used more broadly to refer to any recurring theme in the arts or in everyday life.

Minim (MIN-im)

1 : a musical half note 2 : something very minute 3 : a unit of capacity equal to 1/60 fluid dram Like the more common minimum, minim derives from the Latin word minimus, meaning "least" or "smallest." Musicians were the first to note its significance in the 15th century as a word for the half note. Chirographers soon adopted it as a word for a single downstroke in penmanship (such as any of the three in the letter m), and after careful analysis, apothecaries prescribed minim as a word for their smallest unit of liquid capacity. English speakers have also embraced minim as a general noun referring to things that are very small and as an adjective meaning "of the smallest size," as in "a minim amount."

Cadre (KAD-ray)

1 : a nucleus or core group especially of trained personnel able to assume control and to train others; broadly : a group of people having some unifying relationship 2 : a cell of indoctrinated leaders active in promoting the interests of a revolutionary party 3 : a member of a cadre 4 : frame, framework To understand cadre, we must first square our understanding of the word's Latin roots. Cadre traces to the Latin quadrum, meaning "square." Squares can make good frameworks—a fact that makes it easier to understand why first French speakers and later English speakers used cadre as a word meaning "framework." If you think of a core group of officers in a regiment as the framework that holds things together for the unit, you'll understand how the "personnel" sense of cadre developed. Military leaders and their troops are well-trained and work together as a unified team, which may explain why cadre is now sometimes used more generally to refer to any group of people who have some kind of unifying characteristic, even if they aren't leaders.

Bereft (bih-REFT)

1 : deprived or robbed of the possession or use of something — usually used with of 2 : lacking something needed, wanted, or expected — used with of 3 : suffering the death of a loved one : bereaved In Old English, the verb berēafian meant "to plunder or rob." The modern equivalent (and descendant) of berēafian is bereave, a verb that implies that you have robbed or stripped someone of something, often suddenly and unexpectedly, and sometimes by force. Bereft comes from the past participle of bereave; Shakespeare uses the participle in The Merchant of Venice, when Bassanio tells Portia, "Madam, you have bereft me of all words." But by Shakespeare's day bereft was also being used as an adjective. The Bard uses it in The Taming of the Shrew, as a newly obedient and docile Katharina declares, "A woman mov'd is like a fountain troubled—muddy, ... thick, bereft of beauty."

Declivity (dih-KLIV-uh-tee)

1 : downward inclination 2 : a descending slope Three different English words descend from clivus, the Latin word for "slope" or "hill"—with the help of three Latin prefixes. Declivity combines clivus with the prefix de-, meaning "down" or "away." Acclivity uses ad- (which changes its second letter depending on the root word), meaning "to" or "toward." Hence, an acclivity is an upward slope. The third word has a figurative meaning in English: proclivity makes use of the prefix pro-, meaning "forward," and this word refers to a personal inclination, predisposition, or "leaning."

Lenticular (len-TIK-yuh-ler)

1 : having the shape of a double-convex lens 2 : of or relating to a lens 3 : provided with or utilizing lenticules "Lentil-shaped"—that's the meaning of Latin lenticularis, the parent of English's lenticular. It's an appropriate predecessor because a double-convex lens is one that is curved on both sides, giving it a shape similar to that of a lentil. English speakers borrowed the Latin term in the 15th century. Lenticularis, in turn, derives from lenticula, which is the source of the English word lentil and a diminutive of the Latin form lent-, lens, meaning "lentil." You probably won't be too surprised to learn that lent-, lens also gave English the word lens.

Rife (RYFE)

1 : prevalent especially to an increasing degree 2 : abundant, common 3 : copiously supplied : abounding English is rife with words that have Germanic connections, many of which have been handed down to us from Old English. Rife is one of those words. Not a whole lot has changed with rife in its long history. We continue to use the word for negative things, especially those that are widespread or prevalent. Examples are "shoplifting was rife" or "the city was rife with greed and corruption." Rumors and speculation are also frequently described as "rife." But rife can also be appropriately used for good or neutral things. For example, you might speak of the summer garden being "rife" with scents.

Issuable (ISH-oo-uh-bul)

1 : open to contest, debate, or litigation 2 : authorized for issue 3 : possible as a result or consequence Although issuable now tends to appear in financial contexts (such as in reference to shares that are eligible to be issued, or made available, according to a company's articles of incorporation), it was originally used in the late 16th century as a legal term: an issuable matter was one that was open to contest, debate, or litigation. Within a century, though, the word had taken on the "authorized for issue" meaning that it most commonly has today. In making its home in the world of finance, issuable is carrying on a family tradition. In the early 14th century, its predecessor issue began being used in plural to refer to proceeds from a source of revenue, such as an estate. Issue itself traces back to Latin exire, meaning "to go out."

Empirical (im-PEER-uh-kul)

1 : originating in or based on observation or experience 2 : relying on experience or observation alone often without due regard for system and theory 3 : capable of being verified or disproved by observation or experiment 4 : of or relating to empiricism When empirical first appeared as an adjective in English, it meant simply "in the manner of an empiric." An empiric was a member of an ancient sect of doctors who practiced medicine based exclusively on observation or experience as contrasted with those who relied on theory or philosophy. The name empiric derives from Latin empīricus, itself from Greek empeirikós, meaning "based on observation (of medical treatment), experienced." The root of the Greek word (-peiros) is a derivative of peîra, meaning "attempt, trial, test."

Comely

1 : pleasurably conforming to notions of good appearance, suitability, or proportion 2 : having a pleasing appearance : not homely or plain Although comely is now typically used to describe the appearance of human beings, it was once used more broadly of other appealing things, such as fine clothing. Comely can be traced back to Old English words variously meaning "glorious," "lively," or "fine." If you are looking to pretty up your prose or poetry with additional words meaning "beautiful," English is well-supplied with them. Aside from beautiful itself, we have lovely, handsome, pretty, fair, good-looking, gorgeous, ravishing, and even well-favored.

Besotted

1 : infatuate 2 : to make dull or stupid; especially : to muddle with drunkenness Besot developed from a combination of the prefix be- ("to cause to be") and sot, a now-archaic verb meaning "to cause to appear foolish or stupid." Sot in turn comes from the Middle English noun sott, meaning "fool." Early print evidence of besot is found in a poem by George Turberville, published in 1567. In the poem, the narrator describes how he gazed at a beautiful stranger "till use of sense was fled." He then proceeds to compare himself to Aegisthus of Greek legend, the lover of Clytemnestra while Agamemnon was away at war, writing: "What forced the Fool to love / his beastly idle life / Was cause that he besotted was / of Agamemnon's Wife."

Ostensible (ah-STEN-suh-bul)

1 : intended for display : open to view 2 : being such in appearance : plausible rather than demonstrably true or real Like its synonyms apparent and seeming, ostensible implies a discrepancy between what appears to be and what actually is. Apparent suggests appearance to unaided senses that may not be borne out by more rigorous examination ("the apparent cause of the accident"). Seeming implies a character in the thing being observed that gives it the appearance of something else ("the seeming simplicity of the story"). Ostensible, which descends from the Latin word ostendere ("to show"), suggests a discrepancy between a declared or implied aim or reason and the true one.

Mawkish (MAW-kish)

1 : lacking flavor or having an unpleasant taste 2 : exaggeratedly or childishly emotional The etymology of mawkish really opens up a can of worms—or, more properly, maggots. The first part of mawkish derives from Middle English mawke, which means "maggot." Mawke, in turn, developed from the Old Norse word mathkr, which had the same meaning as its descendant. The majority of English speakers eventually eschewed the word's dipteran implications (mawk still means "maggot" in some dialects of British English), and began using it figuratively instead. As language writer Ivor Brown put it in his 1947 book Say the Word, "Time has treated 'mawkish' gently: the wormy stench and corruption of its primal state were forgotten and 'mawkish' became sickly in a weak sort of way instead of repulsive and revolting."

Gratuitous (gruh-TOO-uh-tuss)

1 : not called for by the circumstances : not necessary, appropriate, or justified : unwarranted 2 a : given unearned or without recompense b : costing nothing : free c law : not involving a return benefit, compensation, or consideration Like gratitude, grace, and congratulate, gratuitous is a descendant of the Latin word gratus, which means "pleasing" or "grateful." When gratuitous was first used in the 17th century, it meant "free" or "given without return benefit or compensation." The extended meaning "done without good reason" or "unwarranted" came about just a few decades later, perhaps from the belief held by some people that one should not give something without getting something in return. Today, that extended meaning is the more common sense, employed, for example, when graphic cruelty depicted in a work of fiction is described as "gratuitous violence," or when unkind words better left unsaid are described as "a gratuitous insult."

Boilerplate

1 : syndicated material supplied especially to weekly newspapers in matrix or plate form 2 a : standardized text b : formulaic or hackneyed language 3 : tightly packed icy snow In the days before computers, small, local newspapers around the U.S. relied heavily on feature stories, editorials, and other printed material supplied by large publishing syndicates. The syndicates delivered that copy on metal plates with the type already in place so the local papers wouldn't have to set it. Printers apparently dubbed those syndicated plates "boiler plates" because of their resemblance to the plating used in making steam boilers. Soon boilerplate came to refer to the printed material on the plates as well as to the plates themselves. Because boilerplate stories were more often filler than hard news, the word acquired negative connotations and gained another sense widely used today, such as "hackneyed or unoriginal writing."

Glom (GLAHM)

1 : take, steal 2 : seize, catch It's a classic case of glomming: Americans seized on glaum (a term from Scots dialect that basically means "to grab") and appropriated it as their own, changing it to glom in the process. Glom first meant "to steal" (as in the purse-snatching, robber kind of stealing), but over time that meaning got stretched, resulting in figurative uses. Today we might say, for example, that a busy professional gloms a weekend getaway. Glom also appears frequently in the phrase "glom on to," which can mean "to appropriate for one's own use" ("glom on to another's idea"); "to grab hold of" ("glom on to the last cookie"); or "to latch on to" ("glom on to an opinion" or "glom on to an influential friend").

Infinitesimal

1 : taking on values arbitrarily close to but greater than zero 2 : immeasurably or incalculably small Infinite, as you probably know, means "endless" or "extending indefinitely." It is ultimately from Latin infīnītus, the opposite of fīnītus, meaning "finite." The notion of smallness in infinitesimal derives from the mathematical concept that a quantity can be divided endlessly; no matter how small, it can be subdivided into yet smaller fractions, or infinitesimals. The concept was still in its infancy in the early 1700s when Irish philosopher George Berkeley observed that some people "assert there are infinitesimals of infinitesimals of infinitesimals, etc., without ever coming to an end." He used the word in a mathematical sense, too, referring to "infinitesimal parts of finite lines." Later, the adjectival form acquired a general sense applicable to anything too small to be measured.

Cupid (KYOO-pid)

1 : the Roman god of erotic love 2 not capitalized : a figure that represents Cupid as a naked usually winged boy often holding a bow and arrow According to Roman mythology, Cupid was the son of Mercury, the messenger god, and Venus, the goddess of love. In Roman times, the winged "messenger of love" was sometimes depicted in armor, but no one is sure if that was intended as a sarcastic comment on the similarities between warfare and romance, or a reminder that love conquers all. Cupid was generally seen as a good spirit who brought happiness to all, but his matchmaking could cause mischief. Venus wasn't above using her son's power to get revenge on her rivals, and she once plotted to have the beautiful mortal Psyche fall in love with a despicable man. But the plan backfired: Cupid fell in love with Psyche, and she eventually became his immortal wife.

Curfew

1 : the sounding of a bell at evening 2 a : a regulation enjoining the withdrawal of usually specified persons (such as juveniles or military personnel) from the streets or the closing of business establishments or places of assembly at a stated hour b : a signal to announce the beginning of a curfew c : the hour at which a curfew becomes effective d : the period during which a curfew is in effect In medieval Europe, a bell rang every evening at a fixed hour, and townspeople were required by law to cover or extinguish their hearth fires. It was the "cover fire" bell, or, as it was referred to in Anglo-French, coverfeu (from the French verb meaning "to cover," and the word for "fire"). By the time the English version, curfew, appeared, the authorities no longer regulated hearth fires, but an evening bell continued to be rung for various purposes—whether to signal the close of day, an evening burial, or enforcement of some other evening regulation. This "bell ringing at evening" became the first English sense of curfew. Not infrequently, the regulation signaled by the curfew involved regulating people's movement in the streets, and this led to the modern senses of the word.

Feisty (FYE-stee)

1 chiefly Southern US and Midland US a : full of nervous energy : fidgety b : touchy, quarrelsome c : exuberantly frisky 2 : having or showing a lively aggressiveness : spunky In certain parts of the United States, most notably the South, the noun feist (pronounced to rhyme with heist) refers to a small dog used in hunting small game animals (such as squirrels). Also spelled fice or fyce, it comes from an obsolete term, "fisting hound," that derived from another obsolete term, fist, a verb that once meant "to break wind." The term feisty has come a long way from its flatulent origin, but its small-dog association still seems relevant: the term conveys the spunk and determination that one may associate with a dog that manages to make its presence known (either through its bark or its bite) despite its small size.

Abominable (uh-BAH-muh-nuh-bul)

1 formal : worthy of or causing disgust or hatred : detestable 2 : very bad or unpleasant The tendency to hate evil omens is a vital part of the history of abominable. The word descends from the Latin verb abominari, which means "to deprecate as an ill omen" or "to detest"; abominari itself comes from ab- plus omin- ("from an omen"). When English speakers adopted abominable in the 14th century, they used it to express their disgust over evil or truly detestable things—and for 500 years that's the way things stood. In the 17th century, the word's meaning moderated, so that Scottish novelist William Black could write in A Princess of Thule (1873), "Sheila had nothing to do with the introduction of this abominable decoration." Other descendants of abominari are abominate ("to hate or loathe intensely") and abomination ("something odious or detestable").

Anthropomorphic (an-thruh-puh-MOR-fik)

1: described or thought of as having a human form or human attributes 2 : ascribing human characteristics to nonhuman things Anthropomorphic comes from the Late Latin word anthropomorphus, which itself traces to a Greek term birthed from the roots anthrōp- (meaning "human being") and -morphos (-morphous). Those ancient Greek roots have given form and personality to many English words. Anthrōp- relatives include anthropic ("relating to human beings or the period of their existence on earth"), anthropocentric ("interpreting or regarding the world in terms of human values and experiences"), anthropoid ("an ape"), and anthropology ("the study of human beings and their ancestors"). Derivatives of -morphos often end in -morphism, as in polymorphism ("the quality or state of existing in or assuming different forms"), or -morphic, as in biomorphic ("resembling the forms of living organisms").

Den

1: the lair of a wild usually predatory animal 2a(1): a hollow or cavern used especially as a hideout (2): a center of secret activity b: a small usually squalid dwelling 3: a comfortable usually secluded room 4: a subdivision of a Cub Scout pack made up of two or more boys 5 British : a small structure built by children as a place to play, hide, or provide shelter intransitive verb : to live in or retire to a den - polar bears den in ice caves or snowdrifts transitive verb : to drive into a den

Distension/ Distend

1: to extend 2 : to enlarge, expand, or stretch out (as from internal pressure) : swell The history of the word distend stretches back to the Latin verb tendere—a root whose kin have really expanded the English language. To find evidence of this expansion, look to words that include "tend" or "tent"; many have tendere, which means "to stretch, extend, or spread," in their family tree. Perhaps the simplest example is tent, which names a shelter made from a piece of material stretched over a frame. You'll also find the influence of tendere in extend, tendon, contend, portend, and tendency.

Equivocal; equivocating

1a : subject to two or more interpretations and usually used to mislead or confuse b : uncertain as an indication or sign 2 a : of uncertain nature or classification b : of uncertain disposition toward a person or thing : undecided c : of doubtful advantage, genuineness, or moral rectitude equivocating - misleading or hedging with ambiguous word choices Equivocal, vague, and ambiguous all mean "not clearly understandable" and are used to describe confusing speech or writing. Equivocal—which can be traced back to the Latin prefix aequi- (equi-) and the Latin word vox ("voice")—applies to language left open to differing interpretations with the intention of deceiving or evading ("moral precepts with equivocal phrasing"). Vague implies a lack of clear formulation due to inadequate conception or consideration ("I had only a vague idea of how to get there"). Ambiguous, like equivocal, applies to language capable of more than one interpretation but usually does not have the negative connotations of deception or evasion ("the poet's wording is intentionally ambiguous").

Gravitas

: high seriousness (as in a person's bearing or in the treatment of a subject) - "they had the gravitas of a deep thinker" This word comes to us straight from Latin. Among the Romans, gravitas was thought to be essential to the character and functions of any adult (male) in authority. Even the head of a household or a low-level official would strive for this important quality. We use gravitas today to identify the same solemn dignity in men and women. "a post for which he has the expertise and the gravitas"

Rejoinder

An answer; a reply

zhilaohu (纸老虎／紙老虎).

The origin and literal translation of an English Phrase, 'Paper Tiger', which means "an ostensibly powerful entity". In Mandarin Chinese, the expression zhilaohu (from zhi meaning "paper" and laohu meaning "tiger") goes back to the 14th century, during the early Ming dynasty. Even then, the figure of the paper tiger represented an empty threat. In the classical novel "Water Margin," credited to the writer Shi Nai'an, a character says, "But when the time comes for action, what good are you? Seeing a paper tiger, you cry out in fright."

Derring-do (dair-ing-DOO)

daring action : daring Derring-do is a quirky holdover from Middle English that came to occupy its present place in the language by a series of mistakes and misunderstandings. In Middle English, dorring don meant simply "daring to do." For example, Geoffrey Chaucer used dorring don around 1374 when he described a knight "daring to do" brave deeds. The phrase was misprinted as derring do in a 16th-century edition of a 15th-century work by poet John Lydgate, and Edmund Spenser took it up from there, assuming it was meant as a substantive, or noun phrase. (A glossary to Spenser's work defined it as "manhood and chevalrie.") Sir Walter Scott and others in the 19th century got the phrase from Spenser and brought it into modern use.

Scrumptious (SKRUMP-shus)

delightful, excellent; especially : delicious First appearing in English in the early 1800s, scrumptious is a mouth-watering word that is used to describe what is delightful and delectable. It probably originated as an alteration of sumptuous, and it carries the elegant and wonderful connotations of its parent. (Speakers of Middle English borrowed sumptuous from the Latin adjective sumptuousus,a derivation of the Latin noun sumptus,meaning "expense" or "cost"). British author Roald Dahl had some fun with scrumptious and created a delightful coinage, when he inserted the infix ‑diddly- into the word to make scrumdiddlyumptious, the word that chocolate magnate Willy Wonka uses to name his best-selling treats in his novel Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (1964).

Desuetude (DESS-wih-tood)

discontinuance from use or exercise : disuse Desuetude must be closely related to disuse, right? Wrong. Despite the similarities between them, desuetude and disuse derive from two different Latin verbs. Desuetude comes from suescere, a word that means "to become accustomed" (suescere also gave us the word custom). Disuse descends from uti, which means "to use." (That Latin word also gave us use and utility.) Although less common, desuetude hasn't fallen into desuetude yet, and it was put to good use in the past, as in the 17th-century writings of Scottish Quaker Robert Barclay, who wrote, "The weighty Truths of God were neglected, and, as it were, went into Desuetude."

Commensurate

proportional

词典

我用词典学汉语。 I use the dictionary to study Chinese. cídiǎn Wǒ yòng cídiǎn xué hànyǔ. Dictionary

Prurient

(adj.) having lustful desires or interests; tending to arouse sexual desires

Inscrutable

(adj.) incapable of being understood; impossible to see through physically

Earmark

(v.) to set aside for a special purpose; to mark an animal's ear for identification; (n.) an identifying mark or feature

Gridiron (GRID-eye-ern)

1 : a grate for broiling food 2 : something consisting of or covered with a network 3 : a football field Modern gridirons are covered in football players when they're in use, but the original gridirons were more likely to be covered with meat or fish; they were metal gratings used for broiling food over an open fire. In Middle English, such a grating was called a gredil, a root that gave modern English both gridiron and griddle. How did gridiron become associated with football? That happened in the late 1800s, when a white grid pattern was added to football fields to help enforce new rules about how many yards a team had to gain to keep possession of the ball. From high up in the stands, the lines made the playing fields look like cooking gridirons.

Ingenue (AN-juh-noo)

1 : a naive girl or young woman 2 : the stage role of an ingenue; also : an actress playing such a role Although Becky Sharp, the ambitious heroine of William Makepeace Thackeray's 1848 novel Vanity Fair, is not usually thought of as innocent or naive, the author used ingenue to describe her as having those qualities. Thackeray's use was attributive: "When attacked sometimes, Becky had a knack of adopting a demure ingenue air, under which she was most dangerous." The word ingenue typically refers to someone who is innocent to the ways of the world, so you probably won't be too surprised to learn that it shares an ancestor—Latin ingenuus—with ingenuous, a word meaning "showing innocent or childlike simplicity and candidness." More directly, our ingenue comes from French ingénue, the feminine form of ingénu, meaning "ingenuous."

White Elephant (WYTE-EL-uh-funt)

1 : a property requiring much care and expense and yielding little profit 2 : an object no longer of value to its owner but of value to others 3 : something of little or no value The real white elephant (the kind with a trunk) is a pale pachyderm that has long been an object of veneration in India, Sri Lanka, Thailand, and Myanmar. Too revered to be a beast of burden, the white elephant earned a reputation as a burdensome beast—one that required constant care and feeding but never brought a single cent (or paisa or satang or pya) to its owner. One story has it that the kings of Siam (the old name for Thailand) gave white elephants as gifts to those they wished to ruin, hoping that the cost of maintaining the voracious but sacred mammal would drive its new owner to the poorhouse.

Farce (FAHRSS) ; Farcical

1 : a savory stuffing : forcemeat 2 : a light dramatic composition marked by broadly satirical comedy and improbable plot 3 : the broad humor characteristic of farce 4 : an empty or patently ridiculous act, proceeding, or situation When farce first appeared in English, it had to do with cookery, not comedy. In the 14th century, English adopted farce from Middle French with its original meaning of "forcemeat" or "stuffing." The comedic sense of farce in English dates from the 16th century, when English imported the word again, this time to refer to a kind of knockabout comedy already popular in France. This dramatic genre had its origins in the 13th-century practice of augmenting, or "stuffing," Latin church texts with explanatory phrases. By the 15th century, a similar practice had arisen of inserting unscripted buffoonery into religious plays. Such farces—which included clowning, acrobatics, reversal of social roles, and indecency—soon developed into a distinct dramatic genre and spread rapidly in various forms throughout Europe.

Mutt

1 : a stupid or insignificant person : fool 2 : a mongrel dog : cur Mutt can now be used with either affection or disdain to refer to a dog that is not purebred, but in the word's early history, in the U.S. around the turn of the 20th century, it could also be used to describe a person—and not kindly: mutt was another word for "fool." The word's history lies in another insult. It comes from muttonhead, another Americanism that also means essentially "fool." Muttonhead had been around since the early 19th century but it was not unlike an older insult with the same meaning: people had been calling one another "sheep's heads" since the mid-16th century.

Nuance

1 : a subtle distinction or variation 2 : a subtle quality : nicety 3 : sensibility to, awareness of, or ability to express delicate shadings (as of meaning, feeling, or value) The history of nuance starts in Latin with the noun nubes, meaning "cloud." Nubes floated into Middle French as nue, also meaning "cloud," and nue gave rise to nuer, meaning "to make shades of color." Nuer in turn produced nuance, which in Middle French meant "shade of color." English borrowed nuance from French, with the meaning "a subtle distinction or variation," in the late 18th century. That use persists today. Additionally, nuance is sometimes used in a specific musical sense, designating a subtle, expressive variation in a musical performance (such as in tempo, dynamic intensity, or timbre) that is not indicated in the score.

Heterodox (HET-uh-ruh-dahks)

1 : contrary to or different from an acknowledged standard, a traditional form, or an established religion : unorthodox, unconventional 2 : holding unorthodox opinions or doctrines It's true: individuals often see other people's ideas as unconventional while regarding their own as beyond reproach. The antonyms orthodox and heterodox developed from the same root, Greek doxa, which means "opinion." Heterodox derives from doxa plus heter-, a combining form meaning "other" or "different"; orthodox pairs doxa with orth-, meaning "correct" or "straight."

Colloquy (KAH-luh-kwee)

1 : conversation, dialogue 2 : a high-level serious discussion : conference Colloquy may make you think of colloquial, and there is indeed a connection between the two words. As a matter of fact, colloquy is the parent word from which colloquial was coined in the mid-18th century. Colloquy itself, though now the less common of the two words, has been a part of the English language since the 15th century. It is a descendant of Latin loquī, meaning "to speak." Other descendants of loquī in English include eloquent, loquacious, ventriloquism, and soliloquy, as well as elocution and interlocutor.

Thewed

physical strength; mannerly; furnished with thews [muscular strength. "brains and brawn, thought and thew"] "buxom [(of a woman) plump, especially with large breasts. "a buxom blonde"] , deep-breasted, strong-thewed, fit to be mates and mothers of big men"

De Rigueur (duh-ree-GUR)

prescribed or required by fashion, etiquette, or custom : proper If you're invited to a ball or other social function and the invitation includes the French phrase costume de rigueur, you are expected to adhere to a very strict dress code—typically, a white tie and tails if you're a man and a floor-length evening gown if you're a woman. In French, de rigueur means "out of strictness" or "according to strict etiquette"; one definition of our word rigor, to which rigueur is related, is "the quality of being strict, unyielding, or inflexible." In English, we tend to use de rigueur to describe a fashion or custom that is so commonplace within a context that it seems a prescribed, mandatory part of it.

Interstitial

between, but not within, the parts of a tissue

Dissolute

lacking restraint - especially : marked by indulgence in things (such as drink or promiscuous sex) deemed vices 1) leading a dissolute lifestyle " The dissolute and degrading aspects of human nature... " — Wallace Fowlie

Transpire (tran-SPYRE)

1 : to take place : go on, occur 2 a : to become known or apparent : develop b : to be revealed : come to light 3 : to give off vaporous material; specifically : to give off or exude watery vapor especially from the surfaces of leaves 4 : to pass in the form of a vapor from a living body 5 : to pass off or give passage to (a fluid) through pores or interstices Transpire came to life in the late 16th century and was originally used in technical contexts to describe the passage of vapor through the pores of a membrane. From this technical use developed a figurative sense: "to escape from secrecy," or "to become known." That sense was often used in ambiguous contexts and could be taken to mean "to happen." (For example, Emily Dickinson wrote in a letter, "I long to see you once more ... to tell you of many things which have transpired since we parted.") Thus, the "to take place" sense developed. Around 1870, usage critics began to attack this sense as a misuse, and modern critics occasionally echo that sentiment. But the sense is commonly found today in serious and polished prose without concern.

Bird-dog (BERD-dawg)

1 : to watch closely 2 : to seek out : follow, detect People began using bird-dog as a verb meaning "to closely watch someone or something" or "to doggedly seek out someone or something" in the early 20th century. Both meanings reflect skills likely to be possessed by a well-trained bird dog—that is, a hunting dog trained to hunt or retrieve birds. By the 1930s, bird-dogging was being used specifically as a term for stealing someone else's date. And, not long after that, it began to be used for the scouting out of customers or prospective talent. The noun bird dog refers to the canines one would expect, and is also used as a name for the date stealers and scouts who do the bird-dogging

Pamphleteer (pam-fluh-TEER)

1 : to write and publish pamphlets 2 : to engage in partisan arguments indirectly in writings Pamphlets—unbound printed publications with no covers or with paper covers—are published about all kinds of subjects, but our word pamphlet traces back to one particular document. It derives from the title of a short Latin love poem of the 12th century: Pamphilus, seu De Amore, which can be translated as "Pamphilus, or On Love." The name Pamphilus referred to a Greek god whose name means "loved by all." Following from this, the original pamphlets were handwritten poems, tracts, or treatises, often consisting of several pages bound together. Pamphleteer, which can be both a noun and a verb, combines pamphlet with the -eer suffix found in such words as engineer and puppeteer.

Impetus (IM-puh-tus)

1 a : a driving force : impulse b : incentive, stimulus c : stimulation or encouragement resulting in increased activity 2 : the property possessed by a moving body in virtue of its mass and its motion — used of bodies moving suddenly or violently to indicate the origin and intensity of the motion You already have plenty of incentive to learn the origin of impetus, so we won't force the point. Impetus comes from Latin, where it means "attack or assault"; the verb impetere was formed by combining the prefix in- with petere, meaning "to go to or seek." Petere also gives us other words suggesting a forceful urging or momentum, such as appetite, perpetual, and centripetal. Impetus describes the kind of force that encourages an action ("the impetus behind the project") or the momentum of an action already begun ("the meetings only gave impetus to the rumors of a merger").

Homonymous (hoh-MAH-nuh-mus)

1 : ambiguous 2 : having the same designation 3 : of, relating to, or being homonyms The "ambiguous" sense of homonymous refers mainly to words that have two or more meanings. Logicians and scientists who wanted to refer to (or complain about) such equivocal words chose a name for them based on Latin and Greek, from Greek hom- ("same") and onyma ("name"). In time, English speakers came up with another sense of homonymous referring to two things having the same name (Hawaii, the state, and Hawaii, the island, for example). Next came the use of homonymous to refer to homonyms, such as see and sea. There's also a zoological sense. Sheep and goats whose right horn spirals to the right and left horn spirals to the left are said to be homonymous.

Oleaginous (oh-lee-AJ-uh-nus)

1 : resembling or having the properties of oil : oily; also : containing or producing oil 2 : marked by an offensively ingratiating manner or quality The oily oleaginous slipped into English via Middle French oleagineux, coming from Latin oleagineus, meaning "of an olive tree." Oleagineus itself is from Latin olea, meaning "olive tree," and ultimately from Greek elaia, meaning "olive." Oleaginous was at first used in a literal sense, as it still can be. An oleaginous substance is simply oily, and an oleaginous plant produces oil. The word took on its extended "ingratiating" sense in the 19th century.

Delegate

1 : to entrust to another 2 : to appoint as one's representative 3 : to assign responsibility or authority To delegate is, literally or figuratively, to send another in one's place, an idea that is reflected in the word's origin; it is a descendant of Latin legare, meaning "to send as an emissary." Other English words that can be traced back to legare include legate ("an emissary usually having official status"), legacy, colleague, and relegate. (The related Latin noun legatus refers to an ambassador, deputy, or provincial governor.) The noun delegate, meaning "a person acting for another," was in use in English by the 15th century, with the verb first appearing in the 16th century.

Divagate (DYE-vuh-gayt)

: to wander or stray from a course or subject : diverge, digress Divagate hasn't wandered far in meaning from its Latin ancestors. It descends from the verb divagari, which comes from dis-, meaning "apart," and vagari, meaning "to wander." Vagari also gave us vagabond, meaning "a wanderer with no home," and extravagant, an early, now archaic, sense of which was "wandering away." Latin vagari is also probably the source of our noun vagary, which now usually means "whim or caprice" but originally meant "journey, excursion, or tour." Even the verb stray may have evolved from vagari, by way of Vulgar Latin extravagare. Today, divagate can suggest a wandering or straying that is literal (as in "the hikers divagated from the trail"), but it is more often used figuratively (as in "she divagated from the topic").

Cocoon (kuh-KOON)

: to wrap or envelop in or as if in a cocoon Since at least the late 1600s, English speakers have been using the noun cocoon for the silky covering that surrounds a caterpillar or other insect larva in the pupa stage of metamorphosis. The word derives, via French cocon, from Occitan coucoun, which, in turn, emerged from coco, an Occitan term for "shell." Linguists believe the Occitan term was probably born of the Latin word coccum, a noun that has been translated as kermes, which refers to the dried bodies of some insects that are sometimes found on certain trees. The verb cocoon has been with us since the latter half of the 19th century.

Nor'easter

A Nor'easter is a storm along the East Coast of North America, so called because the winds over the coastal area are typically from the northeast. These storms may occur at any time of year but are most frequent and most violent between September and April. Some well known Nor'easters include the notorious Blizzard of 1888, the "Ash Wednesday" storm of March 1962, the New England Blizzard of February 1978, the March 1993 "Superstorm" and the recent Boston snowstorms of January and February 2015. Past Nor'easters have been responsible for billions of dollars in damage, severe economic, transportation and human disruption, and in some cases, disastrous coastal flooding. Damage from the worst storms can exceed a billion dollars. Nor'easters usually develop in the latitudes between Georgia and New Jersey, within 100 miles east or west of the East Coast. These storms progress generally northeastward and typically attain maximum intensity near New England and the Maritime Provinces of Canada. They nearly always bring precipitation in the form of heavy rain or snow, as well as winds of gale force, rough seas, and, occasionally, coastal flooding to the affected regions. The heavily populated region between Washington D.C., Philadelphia, New York and Boston, the "I-95 Corridor," is especially impacted by Nor'easters. The U.S. East Coast provides an ideal breeding ground for Nor'easters. During winter, the polar jet stream transports cold Arctic air southward across the plains of Canada and the United States, then eastward toward the Atlantic Ocean where warm air from the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic tries to move northward. The warm waters of the Gulf Stream help keep the coastal waters relatively mild during the winter, which in turn helps warm the cold winter air over the water. This difference in temperature between the warm air over the water and cold Arctic air over the land is the fuel that feeds Nor'easters. (weather.gov)

Elixir (ih-LIK-ser)

Definition 1 a (1) : a substance held to be capable of changing base metals into gold (2) : a substance held to be capable of prolonging life indefinitely b (1) : cure-all (2) : a medicinal concoction 2 : a sweetened liquid usually containing alcohol that is used in medication either for its medicinal ingredients or as a flavoring 3 : the essential principle Elixir has roots in the practice of alchemy; it was used in the Middle Ages as the word for a substance believed to be capable of changing base metals into gold. Its later use for a drug purported to prolong one's life led to its use in the names of medicines of mostly questionable effectiveness. Today, it is often used generally for anything thought capable of remedying all ills or difficulties, be they physical or otherwise. The word came to us via Middle English and Medieval Latin from Arabic al-iksīr; it probably ultimately derives from Greek xērion, meaning "desiccative powder."

Unplug

Pronunciation: Brit. /(ˌ)ʌnˈplʌɡ/, U.S. /ˌənˈpləɡ/ Origin: Formed within English, by derivation. Etymons: un- prefix2, plug v. Etymology: < un- prefix2 + plug v. 1. transitive. To remove an obstacle, blockage, or plug from; to unblock, unstop. 1765 J. Kirkpatrick tr. S. A. D. Tissot Advice to People with Regard to Health xxix. 418 It draws out the obstructing Body with it, and thus unplugs, as it were, and opens the Gullet. 1840 R. H. Dana Two Years before Mast xxx. 364 By unplugging the holes, we let the soap-suds off the decks. 2. transitive. To disconnect (an electrical device) by removing its plug from a socket. Opposed to to plug in (see plug v. 3b). 1926 Evening Independent (Massillon, Ohio) 2 July 9/8 Twice the robbers unplugged her switchboard and she plugged it up surreptitiously and whispered for help. 1932 Pampa (Texas) Daily News 1 May 8/6 (advt.) Is it necessary for you to un-plug one electrical appliance to plug in another? 3. intransitive. To refrain from using (certain) electronic devices, esp. computers and smartphones, for a period of time. Also: spec. to refrain from using the internet or social media. 1991 Orange County (Calif.) Reg. 28 July (Early ed.) h4/1 Many families would like to unplug, but don't know how. 2011 Blogcritics.org Sci. & Technol.(Nexis) 15 June I waited until 10:45 p.m., the night before the start of my detox to make my announcement to both social media site friends that I was unplugging for a week.

Cachinnated

To laugh hard, loudly, or convulsively; guffaw.

Kaifong

['An association formed to promote and protect the interests of a neighbourhood (later more fully kaifong welfare association). Also: a member of such an association, in early use esp. a leader or senior figure in the community.'] Origin: A borrowing from Chinese. Etymon: Chinese gāai-fōng. Etymology: < Chinese (Cantonese) gāai-fōng neighbourhood, neighbour ( < gāai street + fōng lane).

Teh Tarik ("Pulled Tea")

['Sweet tea with milk, prepared by pouring the liquid back and forth repeatedly between two containers so as to produce a thick foam on top; a drink of this.'] 2009 N.Y. Times(National ed.) 1 Sept. b4/1 "Regulars are coming in for local favorites like roti canai, chicken curry and teh tarik, the sweet, milky drink that is ubiquitous across Malaysia."

Blue Law

['Usually in plural. In colonial New England: a strict law motivated by religious belief, particularly one preventing entertainment or leisure activities on a Sunday. Later, in extended use: any law considered severely puritanical or restrictive, esp. one forbidding secular activities such as shopping on Sunday.']

meeja, n.

['With singular or plural agreement (cf. media n.2). The mass media; the members of the mass media, regarded as an identifiable social group. Frequently attributive.'] Pronunciation: Brit. /ˈmiːdʒə/, U.S. /ˈmidʒə/ Forms: 1900s- meeja, 1900s- meejah, 1900s- meejer. Origin: A variant or alteration of another lexical item. Etymon: media n.2 Etymology:Representing a colloquial pronunciation of media n.2 Compare Cajun n., Injun n. and adj., eejit n. colloquial (humorous and depreciative). Chiefly British. 1983 Guardian Weekly 17 July 21/4 Part of the reason Mailer is such fun is his self-appointed mission to smash the consensual tea party held by the cultural bureaucrats and 'meeja' liberals. 1984 Spectator 20 Oct. 6/3 The reason that no democratic government will decriminalise this fairly agreeable short cut to oblivion and death is nothing to do with agitation in the meejer. 1985 Listener 31 Jan. 38/1 The meeja loves a good row. 1989 Observer 15 Jan. v. 3/4 The cheeky 'model'-cum-nightclub singer-cum-meeja star. 2001 New Statesman 26 Feb. 35/1 London..is the seat of the meeja moguls, and the haunt of the jet set.

Blench

to draw back or turn aside from lack of courage : flinch If a stranger approaches you in a dark alley, it might cause you to blench. Do you flinch or turn white? Actually, you could do both, and both would be considered blenching because there are two separate verbs spelled "blench" in English. The blench that means "to flinch" derives from blencan, an Old English word meaning "to deceive." The blench meaning "to turn white" is an alteration of blanch, from the French adjective blanc ("white"). Clues to which meaning is intended can often be found in context. The "flinch" use, for example, is strictly intransitive and often followed by from or at ("blenched from the sight of blood"; "didn't blench at the sound of thunder"). The "whiten" use, meanwhile, can be intransitive ("his skin blenched with terror") or transitive ("the cold blenched her lips").

Trite

(adj.) commonplace; overused, stale

fickle

(adj.) liable to change very rapidly, erratic; marked by a lack of constancy or steadiness, inconsistent

Blatant

(adj.) noisy in a coarse, offensive way; obvious or conspicuous, especially in an unfavorable sense

Lavish

(adj.) overly generous, extravagant; abundant; (v.) to spend or give freely or without limit

Bigly

['With great force; firmly, violently; (also) stoutly, strongly.']

Truant

absent without permission

Espied

to catch sight of

Disseminate

to scatter or spread widely

Specious

deceptively attractive; seemingly plausible but fallacious

Leery

Suspicious or wary

Canniness

careful, cautious, prudent

Vacillating

changing, fluctuating

Boorish

ill-mannered

Depravity

moral corruption, a wicked or perverse act

Impious

not devout in religion

Disinterred

something taken out of a tomb or grave

香蕉

香蕉不贵。 Bananas are not expensive. xiāngjiāo Xiāngjiāo bú guì. Banana

Perjurious

guilty of perjury

Indolent

habitually lazy; idle

Addle

make or become confused; muddle; drive crazy; become rotten (egg)

Triskaidekaphobia (triss-kye-dek-uh-FOH-bee-uh)

fear of the number 13 It's impossible to say just how or when the number thirteen got its bad reputation. There are a number of theories, of course. Some say it comes from the Last Supper because Jesus was betrayed afterwards by one among the thirteen present. Others trace the source of the superstition back to ancient Hindu beliefs or Norse mythology. But if written references are any indication, the phenomenon isn't all that old (at least, not among English speakers). Known mention of fear of thirteen in print dates back only to the late 1800s. By circa 1911, however, it was prevalent enough to merit a name, which was formed by attaching the Greek word for "thirteen"—treiskaideka (dropping that first "e")—to phobia ("fear of").

Dictitate

['transitive and intransitive. To speak or say repeatedly.']

grand coup, n.

bold and strikingly successful stroke or move

Cauterize

burn the skin or flesh of (a wound) with a heated instrument or caustic substance, typically to stop bleeding or prevent the wound from becoming infected. "I'll freeze the hand and cauterize the wound"

Emphatic

forcibly expressive

Providential

fortunate

Lucre (ˈlo͞okər)

money or profits "officials getting their hands grubby with filthy lucre"

Inconstant

not lasting; not steady

教授

noun 他是数学教授。 He is a mathematics professor. jiàoshòu Tā shì shùxué jiaòshòu. professor

Confounding

puzzling; baffling

Banal

so lacking in originality as to be obvious and boring

Martial

warlike; relating to the military

Dote

to show excessive fondness for

Virulence

1. the severity or harmfulness of a disease or poison. "the proportion of birds which die depends on the virulence of the virus" 2. bitter hostility; rancor. "he was clearly pained by the virulence of the attacks"

Surly

1: menacing or threatening in appearancesurly weather 2: obsolete : ARROGANT, IMPERIOUS 3: irritably sullen and churlish in mood or manner : CRABBED

Iterative

A process that repeats a series of steps over and over until the desired outcome is obtained.

Ratification

Formal approval

Catholic

Universal; including a diverse variety "The duties of these subprefects were catholic, for they were supposed to see to all aspects of the welfare of the people in their area"

Briticism

['A word or phrase characteristic of the English of Great Britain but not used in the English of the United States or other countries.']

Immanence

existing or operating within; inherent; "the protection of liberties is immanent in constitutional arrangements"

Malodorous

foul-smelling

Tenuous

having little substance or strength

Leering

look or gaze in an unpleasant, malicious, or lascivious way

Schlep

often transitive. haul or carry (something heavy or awkward). "she schlepped her groceries home" 1. a tedious or difficult journey. "a rush hour schlep to the airport and back" 2. another term for schlepper. "all the schleps who say that 2010 was the beginning of a new decade are wrong"

Fiduciary

relating to the governing of property or estate on behalf of others "the company has a fiduciary duty to shareholders"

Tenantry

tenants (a person who occupies land or property rented from a landlord. "council-house tenants") of an estate considered as a group

Rebuke

to criticize sharply

Bequeathed

transitive verb 1: to give or leave by will (see WILL entry 2 sense 1) —used especially of personal propertya ring bequeathed to her by her grandmother 2: to hand down : TRANSMITlessons bequeathed to future generations

Aposematic

warning coloration

Cosmopolitan

worldly; sophisticated

Belletrism

written and regarded for aesthetic value rather than content

Wry

1. using or expressing dry, especially mocking, humor "a wry smile" 2. (of a person's face or features) twisted into an expression of disgust, disappointment, or annoyance.

Portend (por-TEND)

1 : to give an omen or anticipatory sign of 2 : indicate, signify Portend has been used in English in the context of signs of things to come since the 15th century. The word derives from the Latin verb portendere, which means "to predict or foretell." That verb, in turn, developed as a combination of the prefix por- (meaning "forward") and the verb tendere (meaning "to stretch"). So you can think of portend as having a literal meaning of "stretching forward to predict." Additional descendants of tendere include extend, tendon, and tension, among others.

Pomp

a showy or dignified display

Probity (PROH-buh-tee)

adherence to the highest principles and ideals : uprightness Probity and its synonyms honesty, honor, and integrity all mean uprightness of character or action, with some slight differences in emphasis. Honesty implies a refusal to lie or deceive in any way. Honor suggests an active or anxious regard for the standards of one's profession, calling, or position. Integrity implies trustworthiness and incorruptibility to a degree that one is incapable of being false to a trust, responsibility, or pledge. Probity, which descends from Latin probus, meaning "honest," implies tried and proven honesty or integrity.

Chilblain

an inflammatory swelling or sore caused by exposure (as of the feet or hands) to cold Given that chilblains are caused by exposure to cold conditions, it may not surprise you to know that the first element of this word comes from the noun chill. The second element, blain, may be less familiar, though the word blain ("an inflammatory swelling or sore") is still used by English speakers. Both elements of chilblain have Anglo-Saxon roots. Chill comes from Old English ciele ("frost" or "chill"), which is akin to ceald, an Old English ancestor of the modern cold. Blain comes from Old English blegen (of the same meaning as blain). These two words were first brought together (as the compound chyll blayne) in the 1500s.

Germane

being at once relevant and appropriate : fitting "Wert thou a Leopard, thou wert Germane to the Lion." So wrote William Shakespeare in his tragic play Timon of Athens, using an old (and now-obsolete) sense of germane meaning "closely akin." Germane derives from the Latin word germen, meaning "bud" or "sprout," which is also at the root of our verb germinate, meaning "to sprout" or "to begin to develop." An early sense of germane referred specifically to children of the same parents, who were perhaps seen as being like buds on a single tree. Again, we turn to Shakespeare, who composed this dark line in The Winter's Tale: "Not he alone shall suffer what wit can make heavy and vengeance bitter; but those that are germane to him ... shall all come under the hangman...."

Veritable (VAIR-uh-tuh-bul)

being in fact the thing named and not false, unreal, or imaginary — often used to stress the aptness of a metaphor Veritable, like its close relative verity ("truth"), came to English through Anglo-French from Latin. It is ultimately derived from verus, the Latin word for "true," which also gave us verify, aver, and verdict. Veritable is often used as a synonym of genuine or authentic ("a veritable masterpiece"), but it is also frequently used to stress the aptness of a metaphor, often in a humorous tone ("a veritable swarm of lawyers"). In the past, usage commentators have objected to the latter use, but today it doesn't draw much criticism.

Billingsgate

coarsely abusive language A steady stream of billingsgate could be heard coming from my brother's room as he tried to recover the files lost when his computer crashed. the intemperate billingsgate to which the staff in customer service were sometimes subjected

Nascent (NASS-unt)

coming or having recently come into existence Nascent comes from nascens, the present participle of the Latin verb nasci, which means "to be born." It is a relative newcomer to the collection of English words that derive from that Latin verb. In fact, when the word nascent was itself a newborn, in the first quarter of the 17th century, other nasci offspring were already respectably mature. Nation, native, and nature had been around since the 1300s; innate and natal, since the 1400s. More recently, we picked up some French descendants of nasci: née in the 1700s and Renaissance in the 1800s. One of our newer nasci words is perinatology, which was first used in the late 1960s to name the specialized branch of medicine concerned with childbirth.

Agon

conflict; especially : the dramatic conflict between the chief characters in a literary work Agon comes from the Greek word agōn, which is translated with a number of meanings, among them "contest," "competition at games," and "gathering." In ancient Greece, agons (the word is also pluralized in English as agones) were contests held during public festivals. The contests—among them the ancient Olympics, on which our modern Olympics is modeled—involved everything from athletics to chariot and horse racing to music and literature. Agon in the realm of literature refers to the dramatic conflict between the main characters in a Greek play or, more broadly, between the chief characters in any literary work. The word is also occasionally used to refer to conflict in general.

Quirk

curve, twist Did you expect quirk to be a noun meaning "a peculiarity of action or behavior"? If so, you're probably not alone; the "peculiarity" sense of the noun quirk is commonly known and has been a part of our language since the 17th century. But quirk has long worn other hats in English, too. The sense meaning "a curve, turn, or twist" has named everything from curving pen marks on paper (i.e., flourishes) to witty turns of phrase to the vagaries or twists of fate. In contemporary English, the verb quirk can be used in referring to facial expressions, especially those that involve crooked smiles or furrowed eyebrows.

Delectation (dee-lek-TAY-shun)

delight, enjoyment Pleasure, delight, and enjoyment are all synonyms and all signify the agreeable emotion accompanying the possession or expectation of what is good or greatly desired. Why, then, use delectation, that not-so-familiar synonym? Because, as with most synonym groups, each word has its own subtle distinctions. Pleasure stresses satisfaction or gratification of the senses. Delight adds the idea of liveliness or obviousness in that satisfaction, often less enduring than pleasure. Enjoyment suggests a wide range of deep pleasure from merely transient, though complete, gratification to deep-seated happiness. Delectation (which is from the Latin word for "delight") suggests a reaction to pleasurable experience consciously sought or provided. More than all the others, it connotes amusement or diversion.

Parley (pärlē)

discussion, usually between enemies

Rout

disorderly retreat of defeated troops. "the retreat degenerated into a rout" disorderly retreat; retreat; flight; headlong flight (dated) an assembly of people who have made a move toward committing an illegal act that would constitute an offense of riot. (archaic) a large evening party or reception. defeat and cause to retreat in disorder. "in a matter of minutes the attackers were routed"

Tableau

dramatic scene or picture

Anhydrated

dried up

Comestible (kuh-MESS-tuh-bul)

edible Did you expect comestible to be a noun meaning "food"? You're probably not alone. As it happens, comestible is used both as an adjective and a noun. The adjective is by far the older of the two; it has been part of English since at least the 1400s. In fact, one of its earliest known uses was in a text printed in 1483 by William Caxton, the man who established England's first printing press. The noun (which is most often used in the plural form comestibles) dates to the late 1700s.

Coltish

energetic but awkward in one's movements or behavior.

Nimiety (nih-MYE-uh-tee)

excess, redundancy There's no scarcity of English words for too much of a good thing—words like overkill, plethora, superfluity, surfeit, surplus, and preponderance, to name a few. In fact, you might just feel that nimiety itself is a bit superfluous. And it's true—English speakers have never found much need for it, though it has been part of our language for over 450 years. For reasons long forgot, we borrowed it from Late Latin nimietas, a noun taken, in turn, from the Latin adjective nimius, meaning "excessive." If nimiety appeals to you but you'd like it in adjective form look no further than its only English relative: nimious, also from nimius, means "excessive, extravagant," and is even rarer than nimiety.

Adulation (aj-uh-LAY-shun)

excessive or slavish admiration or flattery If adulation makes you think of a dog panting after its master, you're on the right etymological track; the word ultimately derives from the Latin verb adulari, meaning "to fawn on" (a sense used specifically of the affectionate behavior of dogs) or "to flatter." Adulation, which came to us from Latin by way of Old French, can be traced back as far as the 15th century in English. The verb adulate, the noun adulator, and the adjective adulatory later joined the language.

Vainglorious

excessively proud or boastful; elated by vanity

Teleological (tel-ee-uh-LAH-jih-kul)

exhibiting or relating to design or purpose especially in nature Teleological (which comes to us, by way of New Latin, from the Greek root tele-, telos, meaning "end or purpose") and its close relative teleology both entered English in the 18th century, followed by teleologist in the 19th century. Teleology has the basic meaning of "the study of ends or purposes." A teleologist attempts to understand the purpose of something by looking at its results. A teleological philosopher might argue that we should judge whether an act is good or bad by seeing if it produces a good or bad result, and a teleological explanation of evolutionary changes claims that all such changes occur for a definite purpose.

Exegesis (ek-suh-JEE-sis)

exposition, explanation; especially : an explanation or critical interpretation of a text Theological scholars have long been preoccupied with interpreting the meanings of various passages in the Bible. In fact, because of the sacred status of the Bible in both Judaism and Christianity, biblical interpretation has played a crucial role in both of those religions throughout their histories. English speakers have used the word exegesis—a descendant of the Greek term exēgeisthai, meaning "to explain" or "to interpret"—to refer to explanations of Scripture since the early 17th century. Nowadays, however, academic writers interpret all sorts of texts, and exegesis is no longer associated mainly with the Bible.

Plaintive

expressive of suffering or woe : melancholy Like its relative plangent, plaintive is often used to describe sad sounds. "A plaintive wail," for example, is a common use. Plaintive and plangent (along with relatives plaintiff and complain) ultimately derive from the Latin verb plangere, meaning "to strike," "to beat one's breast," or "to lament." This Latin verb led to plaint, an Anglo-French word (and now also an English word) meaning "lamentation." Plaint is the root of Middle English plaintif (meaning "lamenting" or "complaining"), which gave rise to plaintive as well as the noun plaintiff.

Milling

grind or crush (something) in a mill. ("hard wheats are easily milled into white flour") cut or shape (metal) with a rotating tool. "lathes [a machine for shaping wood, metal, or other material by means of a rotating drive which turns the piece being worked on against changeable cutting tools.] and milling machines" (of people or animals) move around in a confused mass. "the milling crowds of guests" thicken (wool or another animal fiber) by fulling [clean, shrink, and felt (cloth) by heat, pressure, and moisture] it.

Nocuous (NAH-kyuh-wus)

harmful You are probably more familiar with the adjective innocuous, meaning "harmless," than with its antonymous relative nocuous. Both nocuous and innocuous have immediate Latin predecessors: nocuus and innocuus. (The latter combines nocuus with the negative prefix in-.) Both words can also be traced back to the Latin verb nocēre, meaning "to harm." Other nocēre descendants in English include the familiar innocent and the less familiar nocent, which means "harmful." Nuisance (which originally meant, and still can mean, "a harm or injury") is a more distant relative. Nocuous is one of the less common nocēre descendants, but it does turn up occasionally.

Insuperable (in-SOO-puh-ruh-bul)

incapable of being surmounted, overcome, passed over, or solved Insuperable first appeared in print in the 14th century, and as a close synonym to insurmountable, it still means now approximately what it did then. In Latin, superare means "to go over, surmount, overcome, or excel." (The sur- in surmount is related to the Latin prefix super-.) The Latin word insuperabilis, from which insuperable is derived, was formed by combining the negative prefix in- with superare plus abilis ("able"). Hence, insuperabilis means "unable to be surmounted, overcome, or passed over," or more simply, "insurmountable." The word can describe physical barriers that cannot be scaled (such as walls or mountains) as well as more figurative challenges, obstacles, or difficulties.

Tchotchke (CHAHCH-kuh)

knickknack, trinket Just as trinkets can dress up your shelves or coffee table, many words for "miscellaneous objects" or "nondescript junk" decorate our language. Knickknack, doodad, gewgaw, and whatnot are some of the more common ones. While many such words are of unknown origin, we know that tchotchke comes from the Yiddish tshatshke of the same meaning, and ultimately from a now-obsolete Polish word, czaczko. Tchotchke is a pretty popular word these days, but it wasn't commonly used in English until the 1970s.

Lily-livered (LILL-ee-LIV-erd)

lacking courage : cowardly The basis of the word lily-livered lies in an old belief. Years ago, people thought that health and temperament were the products of a balance or imbalance of four bodily fluids, or humors: blood, phlegm, black bile, and yellow bile. It was believed that a deficiency of yellow bile, or choler, the humor that governed anger, spirit, and courage, would leave a person's liver colorless or white. Someone with this deficiency, and so white-livered, would be spiritless and a coward. Lily-livered and white-livered have been used synonymously since the 17th century, but lily-livered is now the more common expression, probably because of its alliteration.

Vanward (VAN-werd)

located in the vanguard : advanced The troops at the head of an army are called the vanguard, and that word can also mean "the forefront of an action or movement." It was vanguard, rather than vanward, that led the way on the route into English. Vanguard was first documented in English in the 15th century. By the early 17th century, it was sometimes shortened to van—a reference might be made to an army's "van and rear." Some 200 years later vanward brought up the rear, making its English debut when writers appended -ward, an adjective suffix meaning "is situated in the direction of," to the shortened van, thereby creating a word meaning "in the forefront."

Anosmia

loss or impairment of the sense of smell; This is a commonly reported symptom of Covid-19.

Paramour

lover; an illicit lover

Remonstrate

make a forcefully reproachful protest. "he turned angrily to remonstrate with Tommy" "I went to the boss to remonstrate against the new rules." "I jumped in the car and went to remonstrate."

Subtilize

make more subtle or refined

Nary

not any : not one Nary, most often used in the phrase "nary a" to mean "not a single," is an 18th-century alteration of the adjectival phrase "ne'er a," in which ne'er is a contraction of never. That contraction dates to the 13th century, and the word it abbreviates is even older: never can be traced back to Old English nǣfre, a combination of ne ("not" or "no") and ǣfre ("ever"). Old English ne also combined with ā ("always") to give us nā, the Old English ancestor of our no. Ā, from the Latin aevum ("age" or "lifetime") and Greek aiōn ("age"), is related to the English adverb aye, meaning "always, continually, or ever." This aye (pronounced to rhyme with say) is unrelated to the more familiar aye (pronounced to rhyme with sigh) used as a synonym of yes.

Ineluctable

not to be avoided, changed, or resisted : inevitable Like drama, wrestling was popular in ancient Greece and Rome. "Wrestler," in Latin, is luctator, and "to wrestle" is luctari. Luctari also has extended senses—"to struggle," "to strive," or "to contend." Eluctari joins e- ("ex-") with luctari, forming a verb meaning "to struggle clear of." Ineluctabilis brought in the negative prefix in- to form an adjective describing something that cannot be escaped or avoided; English speakers borrowed ineluctabilis as ineluctable. Another word that has its roots in luctari is reluctant. Reluctari means "to struggle against"—and someone who is reluctant resists or holds back.

Lodestar (LOHD-stahr)

one that serves as an inspiration, model, or guide The literal, albeit archaic, meaning of lodestar is "a star that leads or guides," and it is a term that has been used especially in reference to the North Star. (The first half of the word derives from the Middle English word lode, meaning "course.") Both the literal and the figurative sense ("an inspiration or guide") date back to the 14th century, the time of Geoffrey Chaucer. The literal sense fell out of use in the 17th century for the most part, and so, for a while, did the figurative sense—but it appeared again 170 years later, when Sir Walter Scott used it in his 1813 poem The Bridal of Triermain.

Canorous (kuh-NOR-us)

pleasant sounding : melodious In Confessions of an English Opium-Eater (1821), the author Thomas de Quincey describes a manservant who, after accidentally letting a loaded trunk fall down a flight of stairs, "sang out a long, loud, and canorous peal of laughter." Canorous typically describes things, such as church choirs or birds in the spring, that are a pleasure to listen to. It derives from the Latin verb canere ("to sing"), a root it shares with a number of words that evoke what is sweet to the ear, such as chant, canticle ("a song"), cantor ("a leader of a choir"), carmen ("a song, poem, or incantation"), and even accent.

Embonpoint /ˌämbônˈpwän/

plumpness of person : STOUTNESS noun: embonpoint; plural noun: embonpoints the plump or fleshy part of a person's body, in particular a woman's bosom. I have lost my embonpoint, and become quite thin. His ideological baggage is almost as heavy as his personal embonpoint. It went down all pulpy, slushy, oozy, all its delicious embonpoint melted down my throat.

Bruit (BROOT)

report, rumor — usually used with about Back in the days of Middle English, the Anglo-French noun bruit, meaning "clamor" or "noise," rattled into English. Soon English speakers were also using it to mean "report" or "rumor" (it was applied especially to favorable reports). They also began using bruit the way the verb noise was used (and still occasionally is) with the meaning "to spread by rumor or report" (as in "The scandal was quickly noised about"). The English noun bruit is now considered archaic, apart from a medical sense that is pronounced like the French word and refers to one of the abnormal sounds heard on auscultation.

Assiduous

showing great care, attention, and effort : marked by careful unremitting [not remitting : CONSTANT, INCESSANT: unremitting pain] attention or persistent application Judges presiding over assizes (former periodical sessions of the superior courts in English counties) had to be assiduous in assessing how to best address their cases. Not only were their efforts invaluable, but they also serve as a fine demonstration of the etymologies of assiduous, assess, and assize. All three of those words derive from the Latin verb assidēre, which is variously translated as "to sit beside," "to take care of," or "to assist in the office of a judge." Assidēre, in turn, is a composite of the prefix ad- (in this case, meaning "near" or "adjacent to") and sedēre, meaning "to sit."

Beaucoup (BOH-koo)

slang : great in quantity or amount : many, much In French, as you may know, beaucoup is an adverb meaning "a lot" or "much" (as in merci beaucoup, meaning "thanks a lot"). Beaucoup isn't used on its own as an adjective in French; if you want to say "many" in French, you use the phrase beaucoup de. In other words, you would say beaucoup de livres ("a lot of books"), not beaucoup livres. But French grammar was thrown to the wind when English speakers borrowed this word. Beaucoup has been used as a playful slang adjective in English since at least the 19th century.

Fortitude (FOR-tuh-tood)

strength of mind that enables a person to encounter danger or bear pain or adversity with courage Fortitude comes from the Latin word fortis, meaning "strong," and in English it has always been used primarily to describe strength of mind. For a time, the word was also used to mean "physical strength"; William Shakespeare used that sense in Henry VI, Part 1: "Coward of France! How much he wrongs his fame / Despairing of his own arm's fortitude." But despite use by the Bard, that second sense languished and is now considered obsolete.

Wanderlust

strong longing for or impulse toward wandering "For my part," writes Robert Louis Stevenson in Travels with a Donkey, "I travel not to go anywhere, but to go. I travel for travel's sake. The great affair is to move." Sounds like a case of wanderlust if we ever heard one. Those with wanderlust don't necessarily need to go anywhere in particular; they just don't care to stay in one spot. The etymology of wanderlust is a very simple one that you can probably figure out yourself. Wanderlust is a lust for wandering. The word comes from German, in which wandern means "to hike or roam about," and Lust means "pleasure or delight."

Armistice (AHR-muh-stus)

temporary stopping of open acts of warfare by agreement between the opponents : truce Armistice descends from Latin sistere, meaning "to come to a stand" or "to cause to stand or stop," combined with arma, meaning "weapons." An armistice, therefore, is literally a cessation of arms. Armistice Day is the name that was given to the holiday celebrated in the United States on November 11 before it was renamed Veterans Day by Congress in 1954. The original name refers to the agreement between the Allied Powers and Germany to end hostilities that constituted the First World War—an agreement designated to take effect on the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month.

Scotch

to put a definite end to; crush; to cut, gash, or score; to block or prop with a wedge.

Cosmeticize

to make (something unpleasant or ugly) superficially attractive Cosmeticize first appeared in print in the early 19th century as a descendant of the noun cosmetic. Originally, its use was often literal, with the meaning "to apply a cosmetic to," but today it is more frequently used figuratively. Cosmeticize does occasionally draw criticism; usage commentators are sometimes irritated by verbs coined using -ize as they can sound like silly nonce words. Cosmeticize is fairly well established, however, in contrast with the two other rarer verbs that have been derived from cosmetic: cosmetize and the homograph cosmetic, which often turn up in literal senses ("cosmetize the face"; "a face cosmeticked with bright rouge").

Comminute (KAH-muh-noot)

to reduce to minute particles : pulverize What do comminute, pulverize, and triturate all have in common? All three words are derived from Latin and share the meaning "to reduce to small particles." Comminute can be traced back to the prefix com- and the verb minuere, meaning "to lessen." Pulverize descends from a combination of pulver-, meaning "dust" or "powder," with the suffix -izare, which—like the English -ize—can mean "to cause to be." Triturate is borrowed from the past participle of the Latin triturare, which means "to thresh." Triturate specifically refers to the use of rubbing or grinding to achieve pulverization, a process which could be said to resemble the use of rubbing to separate grains from harvested cereal plants.

Loath

unwilling to do something contrary to one's ways of thinking : reluctant Many usage commentators point out that the spelling of loath, the adjective, is distinct from loathe, the verb that means "to dislike greatly." Merriam-Webster dictionaries do record loathe (along with loth) as a variant spelling for the adjective, but at the same time indicate that the loath spelling is the most common one. The adjective and the verb both hark back to Old English, and the "e" ending in each has come and gone over the centuries—but if you want to avoid the ire of those who like to keep the language tidy, stick with loath for the adjective and loathe for the verb.

Oblique

(adj.) slanting or sloping; not straightforward or direct

Amorphous

(adj.) shapeless, without definite form; of no particular type or character; without organization, unity, or cohesion

Transitive

(of a verb or a sense or use of a verb) able to take a direct object (expressed or implied), e.g. saw in he saw the donkey. The opposite of intransitive.

南边

纽约在波士顿南边。 New York is to the south of Boston. nánbiān Niǔyuē zài bōshìdùn nánbiān. South

难

这个字不难写。 This character is not difficult to write. nán Zhè ge zì bù nán xiě. difficult

便宜

这件衣服又便宜又好。 This outfit is good and inexpensive. piányi Zhè jiàn yīfu yòu piányi yòu hǎo. Cheap

笔

这支笔好写。 This pen is good to write with. bǐ Zhè zhī bǐ hǎoxiě. pen

Gaudy

extravagantly bright or showy, typically so as to be tasteless

Insolent

showing a rude and arrogant lack of respect

Lexicon

(n.) a dictionary of a language; the special vocabulary of a person, group, or subject; a compendium

Temperate

moderate; restrained

Glib

(adj.) ready and fluent in speech; thoughtless, insincere

Diatribe

(n.) a bitter and prolonged verbal attack

Nirl

['transitive. To shrivel, shrink; to pinch with the cold.'] 1. transitive. To shrivel, shrink; to pinch with the cold. 2. To shrink into oneself with cold; to shiver.

Progeny

offspring or descendants

Staid

(adj.) serious and dignified; quiet or subdued in character or conduct

Cupidity

(n.) an eager desire for something; greed

一。king 二。many or much 三。how old 四。particle used after a verb to show that it is done or finished 五。male 六。culture, civilization, or language 七。year of age 八。how old? (Using question word, as if asked 几岁了) 九。she or her 十。你几岁了？ 十一。你多大了？ The difference between ten and eleven is that the latter is typically used when asking adults for their age; the former is usually used for children.

一。王 二。多 三。多大 四。了 五。他 六。文 七。岁 八。几岁 九。她 十。我【age】了。 十一。我【age】了。

起床

他起床起得不早。 He does not get up early. qǐchuáng Tā qǐchuáng qǐ de bù zǎo. to get up

送

他送我一本书。 He gave me a book. sòng Tā sòng wǒ yī běn shū. to give

为什么

你为什么不学开车？ Why don't you learn to drive? wèishénme Nǐ wèishénme bùxué kāichē? Why

火车

你可以坐火车去。 You may take the train to go there. huǒchē Nǐ kěyǐ zuò huǒchē qù. Train

应该

你应该学英语。 You should study English. yīnggāi Nǐ yīnggāi xué yīngyǔ. Should

Novice

(n.) one who is just a beginner at some activity requiring skill and experience (also used adjectivally)

Nyctinasty

The tendency of leaves or other parts of a plant to take up different positions at different times, usually in response to regular (esp. nightly) changes in light intensity or temperature. Also: a nyctinastic movement

Surreptitious

(adj.) stealthy, secret, intended to escape observation; made or accomplished by fraud

Logomachy (loh-GAH-muh-kee)

1 : a dispute over or about words 2 : a controversy marked by verbiage It doesn't take much to start people arguing about words, but there's no quarrel about the origin of logomachy. It comes from the Greek roots logos, meaning "word" or "speech," and machesthai, meaning "to fight," and it entered English in the mid-1500s. If you're a word enthusiast, you probably know that logos is the root of many English words (monologue, neologism, logic, and most words ending in -logy, for example), but what about other derivatives of machesthai? Actually, this is a tough one even for word whizzes. Only a few very rare English words come from machesthai. Here are two of them: heresimach ("an active opponent of heresy and heretics") and naumachia ("an ancient Roman spectacle representing a naval battle").

Pointillistic

1 : composed of many discrete details or parts 2 : of, relating to, or characteristic of pointillism or pointillists In the late 19th century, Neo-Impressionists discovered that contrasting dots of color applied side by side would blend together and be perceived as a luminous whole when seen from a distance. With this knowledge, they developed the technique of pointillism, also known as divisionism. By the 1920s, the adjective pointillistic was being used as a word describing something having many details or parts, such as an argument or musical composition; it was then applied to the art of pointillism and its artists, the pointillists.

Boondoggle

1 : a braided cord worn by Boy Scouts as a neckerchief slide, hatband, or ornament 2 : a wasteful or impractical project or activity often involving graft When boondoggle popped up in the early 1900s, lots of people tried to explain where the word came from. One theory traced it to an Ozarkian word for "gadget," while another related it to the Tagalog word that gave us boondocks. Another hypothesis suggested that boondoggle came from the name of leather toys Daniel Boone supposedly made for his dog. But the only theory that is supported by evidence is much simpler. In the 1920s, Robert Link, a scoutmaster for the Boy Scouts of America, apparently coined the word to name the braided leather cords made and worn by scouts. The word came to prominence when such a boondoggle was presented to the Prince of Wales at the 1929 World Jamboree, and it's been with us ever since.

Henchman (HENCH-mun)

1 : a trusted follower : right-hand man 2 : a political follower whose support is chiefly for personal advantage 3 : a member of a gang The earliest known examples of today's word in written English show it being used as a term for a squire or a page, but the word may have seen earlier use with the meaning "groom." It first appeared in Middle English in the 14th century and is a combination of Old English hengest ("a male horse") and man. In the mid-1700s, henchman began to be used for the personal attendant of a Scottish Highland chief. This sense, made familiar to many English readers by Sir Walter Scott, led to the word's use in the broader sense of "right-hand man," which in turn evolved into the other meanings.

Louche (LOOSH)

: not reputable or decent Louche ultimately comes from the Latin word luscus, meaning "blind in one eye" or "having poor sight." This Latin term gave rise to the French louche, meaning "squinting" or "cross-eyed." The French gave their term a figurative sense as well, taking that squinty look to mean "shady" or "devious." English speakers didn't see the need for the sight-impaired uses when they borrowed the term in the 19th century, but they kept the figurative one. The word is still quite visible today and is used to describe both people and things of questionable repute.

Phalanx (FAY-lanks)

1 : a body of heavily armed infantry in ancient Greece formed in close deep ranks and files; broadly : a body of troops in close array 2 : one of the digital bones of the hand or foot of a vertebrate 3 a : a massed arrangement of persons, animals, or things b : an organized body of persons The original sense of phalanx refers to a military formation that was used in ancient warfare and consisted of a tight block of soldiers standing shoulder to shoulder, several rows deep, often with shields joined. The word phalanx comes from the Greeks, though they were not the only ones who used this formation. The Greek term literally means "log" and was used for both this line of battle and for a bone in a finger or toe. The word and its senses passed into Latin and then were adopted into English in the 16th century. These days, a phalanx can be any arranged mass, whether of persons, animals, or things, or a body of people organized in a particular effort.

Rodomontade (rah-duh-mun-TAYD)

1 : a bragging speech 2 : vain boasting or bluster : rant Rodomontade (which can also be spelled rhodomontade) originated in Italian poetry. Rodomonte was a fierce and boastful king in Orlando Innamorato, Count Matteo M. Boiardo's late 15th century epic, and later in the 1516 sequel Orlando Furioso, written by poet Lodovico Ariosto. In the late 16th century, English speakers began to use rodomont as a noun meaning "braggart." Soon afterwards, rodomontade entered the language as a noun meaning "empty bluster" or "bragging speech," and later as an adjective meaning "boastful" or "ranting."

Prehensile

1 : adapted for seizing or grasping especially by wrapping around 2 : gifted with mental grasp or moral or aesthetic perception You may be familiar with prehensile from the animal world: monkeys have prehensile tails, elephants have prehensile trunks, giraffes have prehensile tongues, etc. But can you comprehend where this word comes from? Can you apprehend its derivation? The Latin verb prehendere, meaning "to seize or grasp," is the ancestor of a number of English terms, including comprehend, apprehend, and prehensile. Prehensile came into English in the 18th century via French préhensile, from Latin prehensus, the past participle of prehendere.

Noel

1 : a Christmas carol 2 capitalized Christmas : Christmas English speakers borrowed the word noel from French. It can be traced further back to the Latin word natalis, which can mean "birthday" as a noun or "of or relating to birth" as an adjective. (The English adjective natal has the same meaning and is also an offspring of natalis.) Noels were being sung in Latin or French for centuries before English-speakers started using the word to refer to Christmas carols in the 18th century. An early use of noel (spelled nowell) to mean "Christmas" can be found in the text of the late 14th-century Arthurian legend Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.

Fantod (FAN-tahd)

1 plural fantods a : a state of irritability and tension b : fidgets 2 : an emotional outburst : fit "You have got strong symptoms of the fantods; your skin is so tight you can't shut your eyes without opening your mouth." Thus, American author Charles Frederick Briggs provides us with an early recorded use of fantods in 1839. Mark Twain used the word to refer to uneasiness or restlessness as shown by nervous movements—also known as the fidgets—in Huckleberry Finn: "They was all nice pictures, I reckon, but I didn't somehow seem to take to them, because ... they always give me the fantods." David Foster Wallace later used "the howling fantods," a favorite phrase of his mother, in Infinite Jest. The exact origin of fantod remains a mystery, but it may have arisen from English dialectal fantigue—a word (once used by Charles Dickens) that refers to a state of great tension or excitement and may be a blend of fantastic and fatigue.

Asthenosphere

Asthenosphere, zone of Earth's mantle lying beneath the lithosphere and believed to be much hotter and more fluid than the lithosphere. The asthenosphere extends from about 100 km (60 miles) to about 700 km (450 miles) below Earth's surface. Heat from deep within Earth is thought to keep the asthenosphere malleable, lubricating the undersides of Earth's tectonic plates and allowing them to move. Convection currents generated within the asthenosphere push magma upward through volcanic vents and spreading centres to create new crust. Convection currents also stress the lithosphere above, and the cracking that often results manifests as earthquakes. According to the theory of plate tectonics, the asthenosphere is the repository for older and denser parts of the lithosphere that are dragged downward in subduction zones.

Flummox; Flummoxed

Confuse No one is completely sure where the word flummox comes from, but we do know that early use can be found in Charles Dickens' 1837 novel The Pickwick Papers and that it had become quite common in both British and American English by the end of the 19th century. One theory expressed by some etymologists is that it was influenced by flummock, a word of English dialectical origin used to refer to a clumsy person. This flummock may also be the source of the word lummox, which also means "a clumsy person."

Longitude

Longitude is a geographic coordinate that specifies the east-west position of a point on the Earth's surface, or the surface of a celestial body. It is an angular measurement, usually expressed in degrees and denoted by the Greek letter lambda (λ). Meridians (lines running from pole to pole) connect points with the same longitude. The prime meridian, which passes near the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, England, is defined as 0° longitude by convention. Positive longitudes are east of the prime meridian, and negative ones are west. Because of the earth's rotation, there is a close connection between longitude and time. Local time (for example from the position of the sun) varies with longitude, a difference of 15° longitude corresponding to a one-hour difference in local time. Comparing local time to an absolute measure of time allows longitude to be determined. Depending on the era, the absolute time might be obtained from a celestial event visible from both locations, such as a lunar eclipse, or from a time signal transmitted by telegraph or wireless. The principle is straightforward, but in practice finding a reliable method of determining longitude took centuries and required the effort of some of the greatest scientific minds. A location's north-south position along a meridian is given by its latitude, which is approximately the angle between the local vertical and the equatorial plane. Longitude is generally given using the geometrical or astronomical vertical. This can differ slightly from the gravitational vertical because of small variations in Earth's gravitational field.

Orgulous (OR-gyuh-lus)

Proud "In Troy, there lies the scene. From Isles of Greece / The princes orgulous, their high blood chaf'd, / Have to the port of Athens sent their ships." Thus William Shakespeare begins the Trojan War tale Troilus and Cressida, employing orgulous, a colorful word first adopted in the 13th century from Anglo-French orguillus. After the Bard's day, orgulous dropped from sight for 200 years; there is no record of its use until it was rejuvenated by the pens of Robert Southey and Sir Walter Scott in the early 1800s. 20th-century authors (including James Joyce and W. H. Auden) continued its renaissance, and it remains an elegant (if infrequent) choice for today's writers.

Troposphere

The lowest portion of the atmosphere is the troposphere, a layer where temperature generally decreases with height. This layer contains most of Earth's clouds and is the location where weather primarily occurs. The lower levels of the troposphere are usually strongly influenced by Earth's surface. This sublayer, known as the planetary boundary layer, is that region of the atmosphere in which the surface influences temperature, moisture, and wind velocity through the turbulent transfer of mass. As a result of surface friction, winds in the planetary boundary layer are usually weaker than above and tend to blow toward areas of low pressure. For this reason, the planetary boundary layer has also been called an Ekman layer, for Swedish oceanographer Vagn Walfrid Ekman, a pioneer in the study of the behaviour of wind-driven ocean currents.

Ruck/ Ruckled

['A quarrel, a row; (later also) a fight, a brawl, esp. between groups of people.'] Pronunciation: Brit. /rʌk/, U.S. /rək/ Origin: Either (i) formed within English, by compounding. Or (ii) formed within English, by clipping or shortening. Etymons: ruck v.5, rook n.3; ruckus n., ruction n. Etymology:Either < ruck v.5, or a variant of rook n.3, or shortened < either ruckus n. or ruction n. Perhaps compare also English regional (Kent) ruckle struggle (1736). British colloquial. A quarrel, a row; (later also) a fight, a brawl, esp. between groups of people. In the sense 'brawl', perhaps influenced by ruck n.1 3d(b). 1958 F. Norman Bang to Rights i. 15 I didn't feel like having a ruck about this. 1976 'P. B. Yuill' Hazell & Menacing Jester vi. 66 I heard him and her having a ruck about Nicholas, that's all. 1984 Sounds 29 Dec. 14/2 Punks are a poor bet too (they'll..start rucks). 1991 Twenty Twenty Spring 55/1 Old-style football terrace sheets listed famous rucks. 2005 J. Brand It's Different for Girls iii. 37 All their arguments about education were ultimately futile... Still, the couple liked nothing better than a good ruck.

Auguste

['A type of clown, now generally characterized as wearing grotesque facial make-up (typically featuring red or pink, and usually a red artificial nose), a fright wig or similarly wild hair, and badly-fitting or oversized clothes and shoes.']

一。question word that is put at the end of a sentence to change it into a question. 二。no; not 三。primary school student 四。Another question word that is put at the end of a sentence to ask 'how about' [you]? 五。half 六。one half 七。country 八。China 九。Chinese person; Chinese people 十。America 十一。American person; American people

一。吗 二。不 三。小学生 四。呢 五。半 六。一半 七。国 八。中国 九。中国人 十。美国 十一。 美国人

一。do not have; there is not 二。siblings 三。middle 四。to study; to learn 五。student 六。middle school student 七。to go to; to attend 八。the grade (as in, your grade in school) 九。hong kong 十。no 十一。how to ask which grade someone is in 十二。你上几年级？（responding in Chinese） 十三。What is your nationality？ (how to ask） 十四。你是哪国人？ (respond in Chinese)

一。没有 （mei you） 二。兄弟姐妹 三。中 四。学 五。学生 六。中学生 七。上 (shang) 八。年级 (nian ji) 九。香港 (xiang gang) 十。没 十一。你上几年级？ 十二。我上【year】年级。 十三。你是哪国人？ 十四。我是美国人。

Intransitive and Transitive

(of a verb or a sense or use of a verb) not taking a direct object, e.g. look in look at the sky. The opposite of transitive. See the following examples: Intransitive It is raining. When he finished the race, he vomited. Water evaporates when it's hot. He's been singing all day. You've grown since I last saw you. Transitive It is raining cats and dogs. When he finished the race, he vomited up his lunch. Heat evaporates water. He's been singing barbershop all day. You've grown a beard since I last saw you!"

Judicious

(adj.) using or showing good judgment, wise, sensible

Punctilious

(adj.) very careful and exact, attentive to fine points of etiquette or propriety

Prodigal

(adj.) wastefully extravagant; lavishly or generously abundant; (n.) one who is wasteful and self-indulgent

Shabby

(adj.) worn or faded from use or wear; dressed in worn-out clothes; not fair or generous [of an argument] Exp. "Not too shabby" Of poor quality

Provincial

(adj.) pertaining to an outlying area; local; narrow in mind or outlook, countrified in the sense of being limited and backward; of a simple, plain design that originated in the countryside; (n.) a person with a narrow point of view; a person from an outlying area; a soldier from a province or colony

piquant

(adj.) stimulating to the taste or mind; spicy, pungent; appealingly provocative

Kinswoman

(in anthropological or formal use) a woman who is one of a person's blood relations. "in her will she left her possessions to friends and kinswomen"

Docents

(in certain universities and colleges) a member of the teaching staff immediately below professorial rank.

Counterpoint

(n) contrasting item, opposite; a complement; the use of contrast or interplay in a work of art

Pith

(n) core, essence; significance or weight Also used to convey brief, succinct saying

Propriety

(n) the state of being proper, appropriateness; (pl) standards of what is proper or socially acceptable

Defer (dih-FER)

1 : put off, delay 2 : to postpone induction of (a person) into military service There are two words spelled defer in English. The other defer, which means "to delegate to another for determination or decision" or "to submit to another's wishes or opinion" (as in "I defer to your superior expertise"), is derived from the Latin verb deferre, meaning "to bring down." The defer we're featuring today is derived from Latin differre, which itself has several meanings including "to postpone" and "to differ." Not surprisingly, differre is also the source of our word differ, meaning "to be different."

Embarass

1. a : to cause to experience a state of self-conscious distress b : to place in doubt, perplexity, or difficulties c : to involve in financial difficulties 2 a : to hamper the movement of b : hinder, impede 3 : to make intricate : complicate 4 : to impair the activity of (a bodily function) or the function of (a bodily part) If you've ever been so embarrassed that you felt like you were caught up in a noose of shame, then you may have some insight into the origins of the word embarrass. The word can be traced back through French and Spanish to the Portuguese word embaraçar, which was itself probably formed as a combination of the prefix em- (from Latin in-) and baraça, the Portuguese word for "noose." Though embarrass has had various meanings related to acts that hinder or impede throughout its history in English, these days it most often implies making someone feel or look foolish.

Incommunicado (in-kuh-myoo-nuh-KAH-doh)

: without means of communication : in a situation or state not allowing communication Incommunicado ultimately comes from Latin but made its way into English via the Spanish incomunicado. We borrowed the word (with a slightly modified spelling) from the past participle of the Spanish verb incomunicar, meaning "to deprive of communication." The Spanish word, in turn, derives from the Latin prefix in- and the verb communicare, meaning "to communicate."

表

你的表有一点儿快。 Your watch is a little bit fast. biǎo Nǐ de biǎo yǒu yīdiǎněr kuài. Watch

北方

北京在中国北方。 Beijing is in the north of China. běifāng Běijīng zài zhōngguó běifāng. North

东边

太阳从东边升起。 The sun rises from the east. dōngbiān Tàiyang cóng dōngbiān shēngqǐ. East

苹果

我一天吃一个苹果。 I eat an apple a day. píngguǒ Wǒ yī tiān chī yí gè píngguǒ. (Apple)

Pigeon Wood

['Any of various tropical or subtropical New World trees or shrubs providing wood used in cabinetwork or building, or having fruit which is sought by pigeons; esp. any of the Caribbean trees, Sideroxylon salicifolium (family Sapotaceae), Diospyros tetrasperma (family Ebenaceae), Antirhea jamaicensis (family Rubiaceae), and the white-flowered frangipani, Plumeria alba (family Apocynaceae). Also: the wood of any of these trees.'] 1740 "Importance Jamaica to Great-Brit. 51 Pigeon Wood has a fine, smooth Skin... It is used for inlaying Back-gammon Tables, and very serviceable in building."

Oxymoron

a combination of contradictory or incongruous words (such as cruel kindness); broadly : something (such as a concept) that is made up of contradictory or incongruous elements The Greeks exhaustively classified the elements of rhetoric, or effective speech and writing, and gave the name oxymoron—literally "pointed foolishness"—to the deliberate juxtaposing of seemingly contradictory words. The roots of oxymoron, oxys meaning "sharp" or "keen," and mōros meaning "foolish," are nearly antonyms themselves, making oxymoron nicely self-descriptive. Oxymoron originally applied to a meaningful paradox condensed into a couple of words, as in "precious bane," "lonely crowd," or "sweet sorrow." Today, however, what is commonly cited as an oxymoron is often simply a curiosity of language, where one or both elements have multiple meanings (shrimp in "jumbo shrimp" doesn't mean "small"; it refers to a sea creature), or a phrase whose elements seem antithetical in spirit, such as "classic rock."

Slew (SLOO)

a large number Slew appeared as an American colloquialism in the early 19th century. Its origins are unclear, but it is perhaps taken from the Irish slua, a descendant of Old Irish slúag, meaning "army," "host," or "throng." Slew has several homographs (words that are spelled alike but different in meaning, derivation, or pronunciation) in English. These include: slew as the past tense of the verb slay; slew as a spelling variant of slough, a word which is also commonly pronounced \SLOO\ and which means "swamp," "an inlet on a river," or "a creek in a marsh or tide flat"; and the verb slew, meaning "to turn, veer, or skid."

Slumgullion (SLUM-gull-yun)

a meat stew Slumgullion may not sound like the most appetizing name for a dish, but that's part of its charm. The word's etymology doesn't necessarily do it any favors: while the origins of slumgullion are somewhat murky, the word is believed to derive from slum, an old word for "slime," and gullion, an English dialectical term for "mud" or "cesspool." The earliest recorded usages of slumgullion, including one from Mark Twain's Roughing It (1872), refer not to a stew but a beverage. The sense referring to the stew debuted a few decades later, and while there is no consensus on exactly what ingredients are found in it, that's the slumgullion that lives on today.

Nonesuch

a person or thing without an equal in medieval legend Sir Galahad is the nonesuch of the noble knight with a pure and unselfish heart It is a suspension bridge that is the nonesuch of beauty and utility. The South China Sea Fane is a nonesuch which syncretizes of Ling Nan culture and culture of china and occident.

Daguerreotype

a photograph taken by an early photographic process employing an iodine-sensitized silvered plate and mercury vapor.

Entreaty

a plea, an earnest request "the king turned a deaf ear to his entreaties"

Flibbertigibbet (flib-er-tee-JIB-ut)

a silly flighty person Flibbertigibbet is one of many incarnations of the Middle English word flepergebet, meaning "gossip" or "chatterer" (others include flybbergybe, flibber de' Jibb, and flipperty-gibbet). It is a word of onomatopoeic origin, created from sounds that were intended to represent meaningless chatter. William Shakespeare apparently saw a devilish aspect to a gossipy chatterer; he used flibbertigibbet in King Lear as the name of a devil. This use never caught on, but the devilish connotation of the word reappeared over 200 years later when Sir Walter Scott used Flibbertigibbet as the nickname of an impish urchin in the novel Kenilworth. The impish meaning derived from Scott's character was short-lived and was laid to rest by the 19th-century's end, leaving us with only the "silly flighty person" meaning.

Nebbish (NEB-ish)

a timid, meek, or ineffectual person "From what I read ... it looks like Pa isn't anything like the nebbish Ma is always making him out to be...." Sounds like poor Pa got a bum rap, at least according to a 1951 book review that appeared in The New York Times. The unfortunate Pa unwittingly demonstrates much about the etymology of nebbish, which derives from the Yiddish nebekh, meaning "poor" or "unfortunate." As you might expect for a timid word like nebbish, the journey from Yiddish to English wasn't accomplished in a single bold leap of spelling and meaning. It originally entered English in the 1800s as the adjective nebbich, meaning "innocuous or ineffectual." Nebbich (sometimes spelled nebekh) has also been used as an interjection to express dismay, pity, sympathy, or regret, but that use is far less widespread and is not included in most general-use English dictionaries.

Palindrome (PAL-un-drohm)

a word, verse, or sentence (such as "Able was I ere I saw Elba") or a number (such as 1881) that reads the same backward or forward Palindromic wordplay is nothing new. Palindromes have been around since at least the days of ancient Greece, and our name for them comes from two Greek words, palin, meaning "back" or "again," and dramein, meaning "to run." Nowadays, we can all appreciate a clever palindrome (such as "Drab as a fool, aloof as a bard" or "A man, a plan, a canal: Panama"), or even a simple one like "race car," but in the past palindromes were more than just smart wordplay. Until well into the 19th century some folks thought palindromes were actually magical, and they carved them on walls or amulets to protect people or property from harm.

Kiln

an oven, furnace, or heated enclosure used for processing a substance by burning, firing, or drying The word kiln was kindled in Old English as a bundle of c-y-l-n. Unlike many words that descend from Old English, however, kiln is not ultimately Germanic in origin but was borrowed from Latin culina, meaning "kitchen," an ancestor of the English word culinary, which has been a menu option in English since the 17th century. An ingredient in culina is coquere, meaning "to cook" in Latin.

Viva Voce (vye-vuh-VOH-see)

by word of mouth : orally Viva voce derives from Medieval Latin, where it translates literally as "with the living voice." In English it occurs in contexts, such as voting, in which something is done aloud for all to hear. Votes in Congress, for example, are done viva voce—members announce their votes by calling out "yea" or "nay." While the phrase was first used in English as an adverb in the 16th century, it can also appear as an adjective (as in "a viva voce examination") or a noun (where it refers to an examination conducted orally).

Canvassed

carefully examined or discussed "the issues that were canvassed are still unresolved" Solicit votes from "in each ward, two workers canvassed some 2,000 voters" · "she canvassed for votes" question (someone) in order to ascertain their opinion. "they promised to canvass all member clubs for their views" try to obtain; request. "they're canvassing support among shareholders"

Obloquies

censure, blame, or abusive language aimed at a person or thing, especially by numerous persons or by the general public

Gormless (GORM-lus)

chiefly British : lacking intelligence : stupid Gormless began life as the English dialect word gaumless, which was altered to the modern spelling when it expanded into wider use in the late 19th century. The origins of gaumless are easy to understand; the word derives from a combination of the dialect noun gaum, meaning "attention" or "understanding," and the suffix -less. This gaum has a related verb, also limited to dialect use, meaning "to pay attention to" and "to understand." Perhaps surprisingly, the four-letter gaum has multiple additional dialectal uses that are etymologically unrelated to these. Also noun-and-verb pairs, gaum means "a sticky or greasy mess" and "to smudge or smear especially with something sticky or greasy," as well as "a stupid doltish person" and "to behave in a stupid or awkward manner." Use of all of these pales in comparison to that of gormless, however, which is most frequently seen in British English.

舒服

我今天不舒服。 I am not feeling well today. shūfu Wǒ jīntiān bù shūfu. Comfortable, feeling well

会

我会说汉语。 I can speak Chinese. huì Wǒ huì shuō hànyǔ. To be able to; can

Mendacious

given to or characterized by deception or falsehood or divergence from absolute truth Mendacious and lying have very similar meanings, but the two are not interchangeable. Mendacious is more formal and literary, suggesting a deception harmless enough to be considered somewhat bland. Lying is more blunt, accusatory, and often confrontational. You might yell, "You lying rat!" in an argument, but you would most likely stick to the more diplomatic, "Aren't you being somewhat mendacious?" in a business meeting. Mendacious can also imply habitual untruthfulness, whereas lying is more likely to be used to identify specific instances of dishonesty.

Bonhomie (bah-nuh-MEE)

good-natured easy friendliness English speakers borrowed bonhomie from French, where the word was created from bonhomme, which means "good-natured man" and is itself a composite of two other French words: bon, meaning "good," and homme, meaning "man." That French compound traces to two Latin terms, bonus (meaning "good") and homo (meaning either "man" or "human being"). English speakers have warmly embraced bonhomie and its meaning, but we have also anglicized the pronunciation in a way that may make native French speakers cringe. (We hope they will be good-natured about it!)

西方

我喜欢西方音乐。 I like western music. xīfāng Wǒ xǐhuān xīfāng yīnyuè. Western

吃

我爱吃烤鸭。 I love to eat roast duck. chī Wǒ ài chī kǎoyā. To eat

Bindle Stiff

hobo; especially : one who carries his clothes or bedding in a bundle In the argot of tramps and hoboes, a roll of clothes and bedding was called a bindle, a word that probably originated as an alteration of the more familiar bundle. Stiff itself can mean "hobo" or "migrant worker," meanings it took on in the late 19th century. About the same time, any tramp or hobo who habitually carried such a pack was known as a bindle stiff. In Australia, a pack-carrying hobo might be called a swagman.

Vapid

lacking flavor, zest, animation, or spirit : flat, dull "Then away goes the brisk and pleasant Spirits and leave a vapid or sour Drink." So wrote John Mortimer—an early 18th-century expert on agriculture, orchards, and cider-making—in his book on husbandry. His use was typical for his day, when vapid was often used specifically in reference to liquor. The term comes from Latin vapidus, meaning "flat-tasting," a possible relative of vapor. That use still occurs today; you might, for example, hear an uninspiring wine described as vapid. More likely you'll hear vapid, along with the synonyms insipid, flat, and inane, describe people and things that lack spirit and character.

Lackadaisical

lacking life, spirit, or zest : languid Alas, alack, there are times when life seems to be one unfortunate occurrence after another. We've all had days when nothing seemed to go right. When folks had one of those days back in the 17th century, they'd cry "Lackaday" to express their sorrow and disappointment. Lackaday was a shortened form of the expression "alack the day." By the mid-1700s, lackadaisical was being used (coined through the addition of the suffix -ical). The word lackadaisy also was used around that time as an interjection similar to lackaday, and this word, though never as prevalent as lackaday, might have influenced the coinage of lackadaisical.

字

我认识一百个字。 I recognize one hundred characters. zì Wǒ rènshi yībǎi gè zì. Character

Brummagem (BRUM-ih-jum)

not genuine : spurious; also : cheaply showy : tawdry Brummagem first appeared in the 17th century as an alteration of Birmingham, the name of a city in England. At that time Birmingham was notorious for the counterfeit coins made there, and the word brummagem quickly became associated with things forged or inauthentic. By the 19th century, Birmingham had become a chief manufacturer of cheap trinkets and gilt jewelry, and again the word brummagem followed suit—it came to describe that which is showy on the outside but essentially of low quality. Perhaps the term was something of an annoyance to the people of Birmingham way back when, but nowadays when brummagem is used (which isn't often) it's usually without any conscious reference to the British city.

Inexorable (i-NEK-suh-ruh-bul)

not to be persuaded, moved, or stopped : relentless The Latin antecedent of inexorable is inexorabilis, which is itself a combination of the prefix in-, meaning "not," plus exorabilis, meaning "pliant" or "capable of being moved by entreaty." It's a fitting etymology for inexorable. You can beseech and implore until you're blue in the face, but that won't have any effect on something that's inexorable. Inexorable has been a part of the English language since the 1500s. Originally, it was often applied to people or sometimes to personified things, as in "deaf and inexorable laws." These days, it is usually applied to things, as in "inexorable monotony" or "an inexorable trend." In such cases, it essentially means "unyielding" or "inflexible."

Tonsorial (tahn-SOR-ee-ul)

of or relating to a barber or the work of a barber Tonsorial is a fancy word that describes the work of those who give shaves and haircuts. (It can apply more broadly to hairdressers as well.) It derives from the Latin verb tondēre, meaning "to shear, clip, or crop." (Another descendant, tonsor, is an archaic word for a barber.) You might be more familiar with the related noun tonsure, which refers to the shaven crown or patch worn by monks and other clerics, or the religious rite of clipping the hair of one being admitted as a cleric. The verb tonsure means "to shave the head of" or "to confer the tonsure upon."

Demiurge

one that is an autonomous creative force or decisive power In the Platonic school of philosophy, the Demiurge is a deity who fashions the physical world in the light of eternal ideas. In the Timaeus, Plato credits the Demiurge with taking preexisting materials of chaos and arranging them in accordance with the models of eternal forms. Nowadays, the word demiurge can refer to the individual or group chiefly responsible for a creative idea, as in "the demiurge behind the new hit TV show." Demiurge derives, via Late Latin, from Greek dēmiourgos, meaning "artisan," or "one with special skill." The demi- part of the word comes from the Greek noun dēmos, meaning "people"; the second part comes from the word for worker, ergon. Despite its appearance, it is unrelated to the word urge.

Cursory (KER-suh-ree)

rapidly and often superficially performed or produced : hasty Cursory and its synonyms superficial and shallow all mean "lacking in depth or care"—but these words are not used in exactly the same way in all cases. Cursory, which comes from the Latin verb currere ("to run"), implies speed and stresses a lack of attention to detail. While cursory suggests a lack of thoroughness, superficial implies a concern only with surface aspects or obvious features. An analysis of a problem might be labeled "superficial" if it considers only the obvious and fails to dig deeper into the issue. Shallow is more generally derogatory in implying lack of depth in knowledge, reasoning, emotions, or character, as in "insensitive and shallow comments."

Logy (LOH-ghee)

sluggish, groggy Based on surface resemblance, you might guess that logy (also sometimes spelled loggy) is related to groggy, but that's not the case. Groggy ultimately comes from "Old Grog," the nickname of an English admiral who was notorious for his cloak made of a fabric called grogram—and for adding water to his crew's rum. The sailors called the rum mixture grog after the admiral. Because of the effect of grog, groggy came to mean "weak and unsteady on the feet or in action." No one is really sure about the origin of logy, but experts speculate that it comes from the Dutch word log, meaning "heavy."

Trousseau (TROO-soh)

the personal possessions of a bride usually including clothes, accessories, and household linens and wares Trousseau is a descendant of the French verb trousser, meaning "to truss" or "to tuck up." Fittingly, a bride might truss, or bundle, a variety of items as part of her trousseau—and it is not too surprising that truss is also a trousser descendant. A less common descendant of trousser is retroussé, meaning "turned up," as in a "retroussé nose." The ultimate origin of trousser is likely the Latin verb torquēre, which means "to twist." Torquēre has many descendants in the language, among them a number of "tort" words (distort, contort, retort, extort), torque, and torture.

Muliebrity (myoo-lee-EB-ruh-tee)

the quality of being a woman : femininity Muliebrity has been used in English to suggest the distinguishing character or qualities of a woman or of womankind since the 16th century. (Its masculine counterpart, virility, entered the language at about the same time.) Muliebrity comes from Latin mulier, meaning "woman," and probably is a cognate of Latin mollis, meaning "soft." Mollis is also the source of the English verb mollify—a word that implies a "softening" of hurt feelings or anger.

Mansuetude (MAN-swih-tood)

the quality or state of being gentle : meekness, tameness Mansuetude was first used in English in the 14th century, and it derives from the Latin verb mansuescere, which means "to tame." Mansuescere itself comes from the noun manus (meaning "hand") and the verb suescere ("to accustom" or "to become accustomed"). Unlike manus, which has many English descendants (including manner, emancipate, and manicure), suescere has only a few English progeny. One of them is desuetude, which means "disuse" and comes to us by way of Latin desuescere ("to become unaccustomed"). Two others are custom and accustom, which derive via Anglo-French from Latin consuescere, meaning "to accustom."

Recuse/ Recusal

to disqualify (oneself) as judge in a particular case Recuse is derived from the Anglo-French word recuser, which comes from Latin recusare, meaning "to refuse." English speakers began using "recuse" with the meaning "to refuse or reject" in the 14th century. By the 17th century, the term had acquired the meaning "to challenge or object to (a judge)." The current legal use of "recuse" as a term specifically meaning "to disqualify (oneself) as a judge" didn't come into frequent use until the mid-20th century. Broader applications soon followed from this sense - you can now recuse yourself from such things as debates and decisions as well as court cases.

船

河上有一只小船。 There is a little boat on the river. chuán Héshàng yǒu yī zhī xiǎo chuán. ship, boat

Deke (DEEK)

to fake an opponent out of position (as in ice hockey) Deke originated as a shortened form of decoy. American writer Ernest Hemingway used deke as a noun referring to hunting decoys in a number of his works, including his 1950 novel Across the River and into the Trees ("I offered to put the dekes out with him"). In the 1940s, deke began appearing in ice-hockey contexts in Canadian print sources in reference to the act of faking an opponent out of position—much like how decoy is used for luring one into a trap. Today, deke has scored in many other sports, including baseball, basketball, soccer, and football. It has also occasionally checked its way into more general usage to refer to deceptive or evasive moves or actions.

Malinger (muh-LING-gur)

to pretend or exaggerate incapacity or illness (as to avoid duty or work) Do you know someone who always seems to develop an ailment when there's work to be done? Someone who merits an Academy Award for his or her superb simulation of symptoms? Then you know a malingerer. The verb malinger comes from the French word malingre, meaning "sickly," and one who malingers feigns illness. In its earliest uses in the early 19th century, malinger usually referred to a soldier or sailor pretending to be sick or insane to shirk duty. Later, psychologists began using malingering as a clinical term to describe the feigning of illness in avoidance of a duty or for personal gain. Today, malinger is used in just about any context in which someone fakes sickness or injury to get out of an undesirable task.

Lionize

to treat as an object of great interest or importance The lion is traditionally regarded as the king of beasts, and perhaps rightly so—the lion is brave, stately, and quite often ferocious. Those qualities that earn the lion respect from other creatures were probably in people's minds when, in the 18th century, lion came to be used for a person who is similarly well-regarded, especially after a long and distinguished career in a particular field. A veteran lawmaker might be considered one of the lions of the Senate; a literary lion has enjoyed a long career as a successful writer. This sense of lion forms the basis of lionize, which first appeared in English in the early 19th century.

Placate

to soothe or mollify especially by concessions : appease The earliest documented uses of the verb placate in English date from the late 17th century. The word is derived from Latin placatus, the past participle of placare, and placate still carries the basic meaning of its Latin ancestor: "to soothe" or "to appease." Other placare descendants in English are implacable (meaning "not easily soothed or satisfied") and placation ("the act of soothing or appeasing"). Even please itself, derived from Latin placēre ("to please"), is a distant relative of placate.

Bloviate (BLOH-vee-ayt)

to speak or write verbosely and windily Warren G. Harding is often linked to bloviate, but to him the word wasn't insulting; it simply meant "to spend time idly." Harding used the word often in that "hanging around" sense, but during his tenure as the 29th U.S. President (1921-23), he became associated with the "verbose" sense of bloviate, perhaps because his speeches tended to the long-winded side. Although he is sometimes credited with having coined the word, it's more likely that Harding picked it up from local slang while hanging around with his boyhood buddies in Ohio in the late 1800s. The term probably derives from a combination of the word blow plus the suffix -ate.

Mollycoddle (MAH-lee-kah-dul)

to treat with an excessive or absurd degree of indulgence or attention Coddling eggs is delicate business. You need to cook them slowly and gently, keeping the water just below boiling. Given how carefully you need to treat the eggs, it's not surprising that coddle, the name for the cooking process, developed the figurative sense "to pamper." Mollycoddle was formed by combining coddle with molly, a nickname for Mary. In its earliest known uses in the 1840s, mollycoddle was a noun, a synonym of our modern wimp, but in short time, it was being used as the verb you're likely to encounter now.

Retrodict (ret-ruh-DIKT)

to utilize present information or ideas to infer or explain (a past event or state of affairs) We predict that you will guess the correct origins of retrodict, and chances are we will not contradict you. English speakers had started using predict by at least the late 16th century; it's a word formed by combining prae- (meaning "before") and dicere (meaning "to say"). Since the rough translation of predict is "to say before," it's no surprise that when people in the early 20th century wanted a word for "predicting" the past, they created it by combining the prefix for "backward" (retro-) with the -dict of predict. Other dicere descendants in English include contradict, benediction, dictate, diction, and dictionary.

Lauded; laudable; laudations

worthy of praise : commendable Both laudable and laudatory derive ultimately from Latin laud- or laus, meaning "praise." Laudable and laudatory differ in meaning, however, and usage commentators warn against using them interchangeably. Laudable means "deserving praise" or "praiseworthy," as in "laudable efforts to help the disadvantaged." Laudatory means "giving praise" or "expressing praise," as in "a laudatory book review." People occasionally use laudatory in place of laudable, but this use is not considered standard.

Calliope (kuh-LYE-uh-pee)

1 capitalized Calliope : the Greek Muse of heroic poetry 2 : a keyboard musical instrument resembling an organ and consisting of a series of whistles sounded by steam or compressed air With a name literally meaning "beautiful-voiced" (from kallos, meaning "beauty," and ops, meaning "voice"), Calliope was the most prominent of the Muses—the nine sister goddesses who in Greek mythology presided over poetry, song, and the arts and sciences. She is represented in art as holding an epic poem in one hand and a trumpet in the other. The musical instrument invented and patented in the 1850s, played by forcing steam or compressed air through a series of whistles, was named after the goddess. Because its sound could be heard for miles around, the calliope was effective in luring patrons to river showboats, circuses, and carnivals, which is why the instrument continues its association with such attractions today.

Limpid (LIM-pid)

1 a : marked by transparency : pellucid b : clear and simple in style 2 : absolutely serene and untroubled Since around 1600, 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 that limpid 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.

Prime Meridian

A prime meridian is the meridian (a line of longitude) in a geographic coordinate system at which longitude is defined to be 0°. Together, a prime meridian and its anti-meridian (the 180th meridian in a 360°-system) form a great circle. This great circle divides a spheroid into two hemispheres. If one uses directions of East and West from a defined prime meridian, then they can be called the Eastern Hemisphere and the Western Hemisphere. A prime meridian for a body not tidally locked (or at least not synchronous) is ultimately arbitrary, unlike an equator, which is determined by the axis of rotation. For celestial objects that are tidally locked (more specifically, synchronous), however, their prime meridians are determined by the face always inward of the orbit (a planet facing its star, or a moon facing its planet), just as equators are determined by rotation. For Earth's prime meridian, various conventions have been used or advocated in different regions throughout history.[1] The most widely used modern meridian is the IERS Reference Meridian. It is derived but deviates slightly from the Greenwich Meridian, which was selected as an international standard in 1884. Longitudes for the Earth and Moon are measured from their prime meridian at 0° to 180° east and to 180° west. For all other Solar System bodies, longitude is measured from 0° (their prime meridian) to 360°. West longitudes are used if the rotation of the body is direct, that is, it follows the right hand rule. East longitudes are used if the rotation is retrograde.[2] However, °E that are greater than 180 can be converted to °W by subtracting the value from 360. The same is true of °W greater than 180, converting to °E.

Butin

Forms: late Middle English bottyne, late Middle English-1500s butyn, late Middle English-1600s butin, 1500s buten, 1500s butiene, 1500s butine, 1500s buttin, 1500s butyne, 1600s bootyn; Scottish pre-1700 bowtane, pre-1700 buitin, pre-1700 butiene, pre-1700 butin, pre-1700 butine, pre-1700 buttin. Origin: A borrowing from French. Etymon: French butin. Etymology: < French butin (14th cent.), probably < Middle Low German būte booty n.1 Sometimes difficult to distinguish from booting n.2 (see especially Scots forms at that entry). See also discussion at booty n.1 Obsolete. Spoil, plunder; booty. Usually as a mass noun, but also occasionally as a singular count noun in the same sense (see quot. 1573). c1450 C. d'Orleans Poems(1941) 83 (MED) To parten there bottyne [Fr. leur butin], An oost of fowlis semblid in a croft. 1474 W. Caxton tr. Game & Playe of Chesse(1883) ii. iv. 50 He that abode behynde by maladye or sekenes..shold haue as moche parte of the butyn. 1531 T. Elyot Bk. named Gouernour ii. i. sig. Nvv It is no buten or praie.

Troposphere IV

On clear, calm nights, radiational cooling results in a temperature increase with height. In this situation, known as a nocturnal inversion, turbulence is suppressed by the strong thermal stratification. Thermally stable conditions occur when warmer air overlies cooler, denser air. Over flat terrain, a nearly laminar wind flow (a pattern where winds from an upper layer easily slide past winds from a lower layer) can result. The depth of the radiationally cooled layer of air depends on a variety of factors, such as the moisture content of the air, soil and vegetation characteristics, and terrain configuration. In a desert environment, for instance, the nocturnal inversion tends to be found at greater heights than in a more humid environment. The inversion in more humid environments occurs at a lower altitude because more long-wave radiation emitted by the surface is absorbed by numerous available water molecules and reemitted back toward the surface. As a result, the lower levels of the troposphere are prevented from cooling rapidly. If the air is moist and sufficient near-surface cooling occurs, water vapour will condense into what is called "radiation fog."

Subjunctive

Relating to or denoting a mood of verbs expressing what is imagined or wished or possible. : of, relating to, or constituting a verb form or set of verb forms that represents a denoted act or state not as fact but as contingent or possible or viewed emotionally (as with doubt or desire) the subjunctive mood

Troposphere III

The ability of the convective bubbles to break through the top of the boundary layer depends on the environmental lapse rate aloft. The upward movement of penetrative bubbles will decrease rapidly if the parcel quickly becomes cooler than the ambient environment that surrounds it. In this situation, the air parcel will become less buoyant with additional ascent. The height that the boundary layer attains on a sunny day, therefore, is strongly influenced by the intensity of surface heating and the environmental lapse rate just above the boundary layer. The more rapidly a rising turbulent bubble cools above the boundary layer relative to the surrounding air, the lower the chance that subsequent turbulent bubbles will penetrate far above the boundary layer. The top of the daytime boundary layer is referred to as the mixed-layer inversion.

Adimplete

To fill; to make complete ''The husband loved his wife so much that he told her that she adimpleted him.''

Afflatus (uh-FLAY-tus)

a divine imparting of knowledge or power : inspiration Inspiration might be described as a breath of fresh air, and so it is appropriate that inspire derives in part from a word meaning "to breathe"—Latin spirare. Afflatus is a lesser-known word for inspiration that followed a parallel route. Afflatus, which in Latin means "the act of blowing or breathing on," was formed from the prefix ad- ("to, toward") and the Latin verb flare ("to blow"). That Latin verb gave us such words as inflate and (via French) soufflé. The Roman orator Cicero used afflatus in his writings to compare the appearance of a new idea to a breath of fresh air. Nowadays, one often finds the word preceded by the adjective divine, but poets and artists can find afflatus in the material world as well.

Opusculum (oh-PUSK-yuh-lum)

a minor work (as of literature) — usually used in plural Opusculum—which is often used in its plural form opuscula—comes from Latin, where it serves as the diminutive form of the noun opus, meaning "work." In English, opus can refer to any literary or artistic work, though it often specifically refers to a musical piece. Being a diminutive of opus, opusculum logically refers to a short or minor work. Unlike its more famous relation, however, opusculum is most often used for literary works. The Latin plural of opus is opera, which gave us (via Italian) the word we know for a musical production consisting primarily of vocal pieces performed with orchestral accompaniment.

Yooper (YOO-per)

a native or resident of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan — used as a nickname The word Yooper comes from the common nickname of Michigan's Upper Peninsula—the "U.P."—and the etymology requires the same follow-up question that a challenging joke does: "Get it?" If you're not there yet, try saying them both out loud: Yooper, U.P. Yoopers have been saying both out loud now for about 40 years, but it's only in recent years that those beyond the U.P. and its geographical neighbors have begun to encounter Yooper in use. Yoopers refer to people who live in the Lower Peninsula as trolls (they live "under" the Mackinac Bridge, after all), but that nickname is still at this point too much of a regionalism to qualify for entry in our dictionaries.

Valetudinarian (val-uh-too-duh-NAIR-ee-un)

a person of a weak or sickly constitution; especially : one whose chief concern is his or her ill health Oddly enough, valetudinarian, a word for someone who is sickly (or at least thinks he or she is), comes from valēre, a Latin word that means "to have strength" or "to be well." Most of the English offspring of valēre imply having some kind of strength or force—consider, for instance, valiant, prevail, valor, and value. But the Latin valēre also gave rise to valētūdō. In Latin, valētūdō refers to one's state of health (whether good or bad), but by the time that root had given rise to valetudinarian in the late 17th century, English-speaking pessimists had given it a decidedly sickly spin.

Diligent

characterized by steady, earnest, and energetic effort : painstaking You're more likely to be diligent about something if you love doing it. The etymology of diligent reflects the fact that affection can lead to energetic effort. The word, which entered English in the 14th century by way of Anglo-French, descends from the Latin verb diligere, meaning "to value or esteem highly" or "to love." The Latin diligere was formed by adding the di- prefix (from dis-, "apart") to the verb legere, an ancestor of the English legend, meaning "to gather, select" or "to read." Of course, you don't need to care for the task at hand in order to be diligent, but it certainly does help!

Contestation

controversy, debate The Latin phrase lītem contestārī can be translated as "to join issue in a legal suit," which in layperson's terms means to reach the point in a lawsuit when it's clear to the parties involved what the exact nature of the dispute is. Lītem contestārī is the probable ultimate source of both contestation and contest, the latter having first come to English as a verb meaning "to make the subject of dispute, contention, or battle." But while contest has gone on to have a life at home in another part of speech and in contexts ranging from sports to art, contestation continues to dwell mainly in serious speech and writing about adversarial dynamics between groups of people.

Unfettered

free, unrestrained A fetter is a chain or shackle for the feet (as used on a prisoner), or, more broadly, anything that confines or restrains. The word derives from Middle English feter and shares an ancestor with Old English fōt, meaning "foot." Fetter and unfetter both function as verbs in English with contrasting literal meanings having to do with the putting on of and freeing from fetters; they likewise have contrasting figurative extensions having to do with the depriving and granting of freedom. The adjective unfettered resides mostly in the figurative, with the word typically describing someone or something unrestrained in progress or spirit. This is how English poet and clergyman John Donne used the word in his early 17th-century work The Progress of the Soule: "To an unfetterd soules quick nimble hast / Are falling stars, and hearts thoughts, but slow pac'd."

Agog (uh-GAHG)

full of intense interest or excitement : eager English speakers have been clamoring over the word agog for over 450 years. The word probably derives from the Middle French phrase en gogues, but the semantic link between en gogues (meaning "in a state of mirth") and the earliest English uses of agog, which exist in the phrase "to set agog" ("to excite, stimulate, make eager"), are not entirely clear. The -gog part of the word might make one wonder if agog has a connection to the verb goggle, meaning "to stare with wide or protuberant eyes," as in the manner of one who is intensely excited about something. That word actually has a different origin: the Middle English gogelen, meaning "to squint." In many instances, agog is followed by a preposition, such as over or about.

Cathexis (kuh-THEK-sis)

investment of mental or emotional energy in a person, object, or idea You might suspect that cathexis derives from a word for "emotion," but in actuality the key concept is "holding." Cathexis comes to us by way of New Latin (Latin as used after the medieval period in scientific description or classification) from the Greek word kathexis, meaning "holding." It can ultimately be traced back (through katechein, meaning "to hold fast, occupy") to the Greek verb echein, meaning "to have" or "to hold." Cathexis first appeared in print in 1922 in a book about Freud's psychological theories (which also established the plural as cathexes, as is consistent with Latin), and it is still often used in scientific and specifically psychological contexts.

Fugacious (fyoo-GAY-shus)

lasting a short time : evanescent Fugacious is often used to describe immaterial things like emotions, but not always. Botanists, for example, use it to describe plant parts that wither or fall off before the usual time. Things that are fugacious are fleeting, and etymologically they can also be said to be fleeing. Fugacious derives from the Latin verb fugere, which means "to flee." Other descendants of fugere include fugitive, refuge, and subterfuge.

Irascible (ir-RASS-uh-bul)

marked by hot temper and easily provoked anger If you try to take apart irascible in the same manner as irrational, irresistible, or irresponsible, you might find yourself wondering what ascible means—but that's not how irascible came to be. The key to the meaning of irascible isn't the negative prefix ir- (which is a variant of the prefix in- that is used before words beginning with "r"), but the Latin noun ira, meaning "anger." From ira, which is also the root of irate and ire, came the Latin verb irasci ("to become angry") and the related adjective irascibilis, the latter of which led to the French irascible. English speakers borrowed the word from French in the 16th century.

Succinct (suk-SINKT)

marked by compact precise expression without wasted words The history of succinct might not be short, but it's a cinch to remember. Succinct traces to Latin succinctus ("tightly wrapped, concise"), which comes from the verb cingere ("to gird"), the word that gave us cincture [see image] and cinch. In its earliest uses succinct meant "confined" or "girded up," and, as such, it was often used in reference to garments encircled by a band. Eventually, succinct was extended to the realm of insects, where it meant "supported by a band of silk around the middle" (as in "the succinct pupa of a butterfly"). Later, the word was applied to writings. A "succinct" piece of writing is "compressed" or "compact" and uses as few words as possible.

Sempiternal (sem-pih-TER-nul)

of never-ending duration : eternal Despite their similarities, sempiternal and eternal come from different roots. Sempiternal is derived from the Late Latin sempiternalis and ultimately from semper, Latin for "always." (You may recognize semper as a key element in the motto of the U.S. Marine Corps: semper fidelis, meaning "always faithful.") Eternal, on the other hand, is derived, by way of Middle French and Middle English, from the Late Latin aeternalis and ultimately from aevum, Latin for "age" or "eternity." Sempiternal is much less common than eternal, but some writers have found it useful. 19th-century American writer Ralph Waldo Emerson, for example, wrote, "The one thing which we seek with insatiable desire is to forget ourselves, ... to lose our sempiternal memory, and to do something without knowing how or why...."

Oneiric (oh-NYE-rik)

of or relating to dreams : dreamy The notion of using the Greek noun oneiros (meaning "dream") to form the English adjective oneiric wasn't dreamed up until the mid-19th century. But back in the late 1500s and early 1600s, linguistic dreamers came up with a few oneiros spin-offs, giving English oneirocriticism, oneirocritical, and oneirocritic (each referring to dream interpreters or interpretation). The surge in oneiros derivatives at that time may have been fueled by the interest then among English-speaking scholars in Oneirocritica, a book about dream interpretation by 2nd-century Greek soothsayer Artemidorus Daldianus. In the 17th century, English speakers also melded Greek oneiros with the combining form -mancy ("divination") to create oneiromancy, meaning "divination by means of dreams."

Canicular (kuh-NIK-yuh-ler)

of or relating to the period between early July and early September when hot weather occurs in the northern hemisphere The Latin word canicula, meaning "small dog," is the diminutive form of canis, source of the English word canine. Canicula was also the name for Sirius, the star that represents the hound of the hunter Orion in the constellation named for that Roman mythological figure. Because the first visible rising of Sirius occurs during the summer, the hot sultry days that occur from early July to early September came to be called dies caniculares, or as we know them in English, "the dog days."

Inkhorn

ostentatiously learned : pedantic Picture an ancient scribe, pen in hand, a small ink bottle made from an animal's horn strapped to his belt, ready to record the great events of history. In 14th-century England, such ink bottles were dubbed (not surprisingly) inkhorns. During the Renaissance, learned writers often borrowed words from Latin and Greek, eschewing vulgar English alternatives. But in the 16th century, some scholars argued for the use of native terms over Latinate forms, and a lively intellectual debate over the merits of each began. Those who favored English branded what they considered ostentatious Latinisms "inkhorn terms" after the bottles carried by scholars, and since then we have used inkhorn as an adjective for Latinate or pretentious language.

Infirmity

physical or mental weakness

Voracity (vuh-RASS-uh-tee)

the quality or state of being ravenous or insatiable Voracity comes to us (via Middle French voracité) from the Latin word voracitas, which itself comes from vorax, meaning "voracious," plus -itas, the Latin equivalent of the English noun suffix -ity. Voracity is one of two English words that mean "the quality or state of being voracious." The other is voraciousness, which was once considered to be archaic but has made a comeback. Because voracity evolved from non-English forerunners, rather than being created in English from voracious (as was voraciousness), the word may strike some English speakers as an unusual formation. It's not surprising, therefore, that the more familiar-looking voraciousness has reappeared—most likely through a process of reinvention by people unfamiliar with voracity.

Pro rata (proh-RAY-tuh)

proportionately according to an exactly calculable factor (such as a share or liability) The Latin phrase prō ratā, meaning "in proportion," is a shortening of prō ratā parte/portiōne, meaning "according to the fixed proportion." English users borrowed the shorter phrase in the 16th century, dropping the diacritics along the way, and began applying the term in contexts formal enough that Latin doesn't seem too out of place: in finance and law. There pro rata refers to distributing or allocating a quantity proportionately—for example, dividing up an annual interest rate pro rata into monthly rates; distributing pro rata a profit amongst shareholders; paying part-time employees pro rata (according to full-time pay); or allocating liability for a defective product pro rata. In the early 19th century, pro rata demonstrated its usefulness as an adjective, as in "a pro rata share" or "pro rata distribution." The verb prorate (based on pro rata) followed soon thereafter. Incidentally, the familiar noun and verb rate (as in "tax rates" and "rating on a scale of 1 to 5") also trace back to Latin prō ratā parte, but they entered the language back in the 15th century by way of Anglo-French.

Resplendent

shining brilliantly : characterized by a glowing splendor Resplendent has a lot in common with splendid (meaning, among other things, "shining" or "brilliant"), splendent ("shining" or "glossy"), and splendor ("brightness" or "luster"). Each of these glowing terms gets its shine from the Latin verb splendēre ("to shine"). In the case of resplendent, the prefix re- added to splendēre, formed the Latin resplendēre, meaning "to shine back." Splendent, splendor, and resplendent were first used in English during the 15th century, but splendid didn't light up our language until over 175 years later; its earliest known use dates from the early 1600s.

Mot Juste

the exactly right word or phrasing English was apparently unable to come up with its own mot juste to refer to a word or phrase that expresses exactly what the writer or speaker is trying to say, and so borrowed the French term instead. The borrowing was still very new when George Paston (the pen name of Emily Morse Symonds) described a character's wordsmithery in her 1899 novel A Writer's Life thusly: "She could launch her sentences into the air, knowing that they would fall upon their feet like cats, her brain was almost painlessly delivered of le mot juste...." As English speakers became more familiar with the term, they increasingly gave it the English article the instead of the French le.

Milieu (meel-YOO)

the physical or social setting in which something occurs or develops : environment The etymology of milieu comes down to mi and lieu. English speakers learned the word (and borrowed both its spelling and meaning) from French. The modern French term comes from two much older French forms, mi, meaning "middle," and lieu, meaning "place." Like so many terms in the Romance languages, those Old French forms can ultimately be traced to Latin; mi is an offspring of Latin medius (meaning "middle") and lieu is a derivative of locus (meaning "place"). English speakers have used milieu for the environment or setting of something since at least the mid-1800s, but other lieu descendants are much older. We've used both lieu itself (meaning "place" or "stead," as in "in lieu of") and lieutenant since the 13th century.

Flocculate (FLAH-kyuh-layt)

to aggregate or coalesce into small lumps or loose clusters In the late 16th century, scientists noticed that the loose masses separated from a solution or suspension through precipitation often resembled tufts of wool, and they began to refer to them as flocks, using a word for "tufts" that comes ultimately from the synonymous Latin word floccus. (This flock is not related to the flock that refers to a group of animals, which comes from Old English flocc, meaning "crowd" or "band.") About two centuries later, the Late Latin term flocculus found its way into English and was also used with the meaning "a small loosely aggregated mass." By the end of the 19th century, a whole word family had been formed, including the adjective flocculent, the noun floccule, and the verb flocculate.

Amalgamate (uh-MAL-guh-mayt)

transitive verb : to unite in or as if in an amalgam. especially : to merge into a single body. They amalgamated the hospital with the university. The noun amalgam derives by way of Middle French from Medieval Latin amalgama. It was first used in the 15th century with the meaning "a mixture of mercury and another metal." (Today, you are likely to encounter this sense in the field of dentistry; amalgams can be used for filling holes in teeth.) Over time, use of "amalgam" broadened to include any mixture of elements and by the 18th century the word was also being applied figuratively, as in "an amalgam of citizens." The verb "amalgamate" has been in use since at least 1617. It too can be used either technically, implying the creation of an alloy of mercury, or more generally for the formation of any compound or combined entity.

Démarche (day-MARSH)

1 a : a course of action : maneuver b : a diplomatic or political initiative or maneuver 2 : a petition or protest presented through diplomatic channels When it comes to international diplomacy, the French may not always have the last word—but they have quite a few, many of which they've shared with English. We began using démarche—which in French can mean "gait," "walk," or "action," among other things—in the 17th century. It was first used generally in the sense of "a maneuver," and before long it developed a specific use in the world of diplomacy. Some of the other diplomacy-related words we use that come from French include attaché, chargé d'affaires, communiqué, détente, and agrément—not to mention the words diplomacy and diplomat themselves.

Convalesce

: to recover health and strength gradually after sickness or weakness When you convalesce, you heal or grow strong after illness or injury, often by staying off your feet. The related adjective convalescent means "recovering from sickness or debility," and a convalescent home is a hospital for long-term recuperation and rehabilitation. Convalesce derives from the Latin verb convalescere, which combines the prefix com- ("with, together, jointly") with the verb valescere ("to grow strong"). Valescere, in turn, is related to the verb valēre ("to be strong or be well"), which is also an ancestor of prevail, valor, value, and valid.

Magnetosphere and Exosphere

Temperatures in the thermosphere range from near 500 K (approximately 227 °C, or 440 °F) during periods of low sunspot activity to 2,000 K (1,725 °C, or 3,137 °F) when the Sun is active. The thermopause, defined as the level of transition to a more or less isothermal temperature profile at the top of the thermosphere, occurs at heights of around 250 km (150 miles) during quiet Sun periods and almost 500 km (300 miles) when the Sun is active. Above 500 km, molecular collisions are infrequent enough that temperature is difficult to define. The portion of the thermosphere where charged particles (ions) are abundant is called the ionosphere. These ions result from the removal of electrons from atmospheric gases by solar ultraviolet radiation. Extending from about 80 to 300 km (about 50 to 185 miles) in altitude, the ionosphere is an electrically conducting region capable of reflecting radio signals back to Earth. Maximum ion density, a condition that makes for efficient radio transmission, occurs within two sublayers: the lower E region, which exists from 90 to 120 km (about 55 to 75 miles) in altitude; and the F region, which exists from 150 to 300 km (about 90 to 185 miles) in altitude. The F region has two maxima (i.e., two periods of highest ion density) during daylight hours, called F1 and F2. Both the F1 and F2 regions possess high ion density and are strongly influenced by both solar activity and time of day. Of these, the F2 region is the more variable of the two and may reach an ion density as high as 106 electrons per cubic centimetre. Shortwave radio transmissions, capable of reaching around the world, take advantage of the ability of layers in the ionosphere to reflect certain wavelengths of electromagnetic radiation. In addition, electrical discharges from the tops of thunderstorms into the ionosphere, called transient luminous events, have been observed.

Sobriquets (SOH-brih-kay)

a descriptive name or epithet : nickname This synonym of nickname has the same meaning in modern French as it does in English. In Middle French, however, its earlier incarnation soubriquet referred to both a nickname and a tap under the chin. Centuries later, the connection between these two meanings isn't clear, but what is clear is that the "nickname" meaning of sobriquet was well established in French by the time English speakers borrowed the term in the 17th century—and was the only meaning that was adopted. In current English, the spelling sobriquet is most common, but soubriquet is also an accepted variant.

Terminus

a final point in space or time; an end or extremity. "the exhibition's terminus is 1962" biochemistry - the end of a polypeptide or polynucleotide chain or similar long molecule BRITISH- the end of a railroad or other transportation route, or a station at such a point; a terminal architecture - a figure of a human bust or an animal ending in a square pillar from which it appears to spring, originally used as a boundary marker in ancient Rome

Veld (VELT)

a grassland especially of southern Africa usually with scattered shrubs or trees Veld (also spelled veldt) comes from Afrikaans, the language of the Afrikaners, the descendants of the Dutch and Huguenot people who settled in southern Africa in the 17th century. Literally, veld means "field," and is akin to feld, the Old English predecessor of field. English speakers adopted the Africa-specific sense of veld in the 18th century. Veld refers to open country in southern Africa. Different regions of the veld are distinguished by their elevations. There is the Highveld, the Lowveld, and the Middle Veld, each with different geographical characteristics. Another term associated with veld is kopje (or koppie). This word came to English from Afrikaans (and ultimately from a Dutch word meaning "small head" or "cup") and refers to a small hill, particularly one on the African veld.

Retinue (RET-uh-noo)

a group of retainers or attendants Retinue derives via Middle English from the Anglo-French verb retenir, meaning "to retain." Another word deriving from retenir is retainer, which means, among other things, "one who serves a person of high position or rank." In the 14th century, that high person of rank was usually a noble or a royal of some kind, and retinue referred to that person's collection of servants and companions. Nowadays, the word is often used with a bit of exaggeration to refer to the assistants, guards, publicists, and other people who accompany an actor or other high-profile individual in public. You might also hear such a collection called a suite or entourage, two other words derived from French.

Kludge (KLOOJ)

a haphazard or makeshift solution to a problem and especially to a computer or programming problem The first recorded use of the word kludge is attributed to Jackson W. Granholm, who defined the word in a 1962 issue of the magazine Datamation as "an ill-assorted collection of poorly-matching parts, forming a distressing whole." He further explained that it was derived from the German word klug, meaning "smart" or "witty." Why Granholm included a d in his spelling is not known. What we do know is that speakers of American English have agreed to disregard it in pronunciation, making the vowel pronunciation of kludge reflective of the pronunciation of German klug (\KLOOK\ ). We can also tell you that not everyone agrees with Granholm on the "d" matter: the spelling kluge is also popularly used.

Tontine (TAHN-teen)

a joint financial arrangement whereby the participants usually contribute equally to a prize that is awarded entirely to the participant who survives all the others Tontines were named after their creator, a Neapolitan banker named Lorenzo Tonti. In 1653, Tonti convinced investors to buy shares in a fund he had created. Each year, the investors earned dividends, and when one of them died, their share of the profits was redistributed among the survivors. When the last investor died, the capital reverted to the state. Louis XIV of France used tontines to save his ailing treasury and to fund municipal projects, and private tontines (where the last surviving investor—and subsequently their heirs—got the cash instead of the state) became popular throughout Europe and the U.S. Eventually, though, tontines were banned; there was just too much temptation for unscrupulous investors to bump off their fellow subscribers.

Indigence (IN-dih-junss)

a level of poverty in which real hardship and deprivation are suffered and comforts of life are wholly lacking Is your vocabulary impoverished by a lack of synonyms for indigence? We can help. Poverty, penury, want, and destitution all describe the state of someone who is lacking in key resources. Poverty covers the range from severe lack of basic necessities to an absence of material comforts ("the refugees lived in extreme poverty"). Penury suggests a cramping or oppressive lack of money ("illness condemned him to years of penury"). Want and destitution imply extreme, even life-threatening, poverty ("lived in a perpetual state of want"; "the widespread destitution in countries beset by famine"). Indigence, which descends from a Latin verb meaning "to need," implies seriously straitened circumstances and usually connotes the endurance of many hardships and the lack of comforts.

Décolletage

a low neckline on a garment or a garment with a low neckline; a woman's cleavage as revealed by a low neckline. It was a little full across the chest, but the decolletage sat snugly over her uncovered bosom. The plain, well-made dress will oust the ribbon and the decolletage. The latest model, dark of hair and decreased of decolletage, says she did it to be taken more seriously. Lyn's décolletage was low enough to be appealing to the men nearby, but still high enough to be tasteful. My strict mother wouldn't let me go to the party with a dress that had such a dangerously low décolletage.

Eponyms

a person after whom a discovery, invention, place, etc., is named or thought to be named. a name or noun formed after a person. "The word "-word-" is an eponym linked to the first person said to have requested the item, the Earl of Sandwich." "Because Caesar Cardini put together the first Caesar salad, he is credited with being the eponym of the dish."

Bardolater (bar-DAH-luh-ter)

a person who idolizes Shakespeare George Bernard Shaw once described a William Shakespeare play as "stagy trash." Another time, Shaw said he'd like to dig Shakespeare from the grave and throw stones at him. Shaw could be equally scathing toward Shakespeare's adoring fans. He called them "foolish Bardolaters," wrote of "Bardolatrous" ignoramuses, and called blind Shakespeare worship "Bardolatry." Oddly enough, Shaw didn't despise Shakespeare or his work (on the contrary, he was, by his own admission, an admirer), but he disdained those who placed the man beyond reproach. The word bardolater, which Shaw coined by blending Shakespeare's epithet—"the Bard"—with an affix that calls to mind idolater, has stuck with us to this day, though it has lost some of its original critical sting.

Legatees

a person who receives a legacy. "The founder of the Fatimid dynasty, Ubayd Allah, claimed direct descent from Isma'il, whom the Isma'ilis regarded as the legitimate seventh imam in the line of Ali and his wife Fatima, daughter of the Prophet Muhammad, as the legatees of the spiritual authority handed down through this line of descent. Ubayd Allah and his successors claimed to be the rightful leaders of the entire Islamic world"

Nosegay

a small bunch of flowers : posy Posy [1: a brief sentiment, motto, or legend 2a: BOUQUET, NOSEGAY b: FLOWER] Nosegay is a homegrown word—that is, it originated in English. 15th-century Middle English speakers joined nose (which meant then what it does today) with gay (which, at the time, meant "ornament"). That makes nosegay an appropriate term for a bunch of flowers, which is indeed an ornament that appeals to the nose. Today, the word nosegay is especially common in the bridal business, where it usually refers to a specific type of bouquet: a round, tight bunch of flowers as opposed to a cascading bouquet or other type of arrangement. Occasionally, the word is used metaphorically for things that somehow resemble a bouquet. For example, a compact collection of enjoyably lighthearted short stories might be called "a nosegay of a book."

Popinjay

a strutting supercilious person Popinjays and parrots are birds of a feather. Popinjay, from the Middle French word papegai, is the original name for a parrot in English. The French word, in turn, came from the Arabic word for the bird, babghā'. Parrot, which English speakers adopted later, is probably a modification of the Middle French perroquet, which is also the source of the English parakeet. In the days of Middle English, parrots were rare and exotic, and it was quite a compliment to be called a popinjay after such a beautiful bird. But by the 1500s, parrots had become more commonplace, and their gaudy plumage and vulgar mimicry helped popinjay develop the pejorative sense we use today.

Peripeteia (pair-uh-puh-TEE-uh)

a sudden or unexpected reversal of circumstances or situation especially in a literary work Peripeteia comes from Greek, in which the verb peripiptein means "to fall around" or "to change suddenly." It usually indicates a turning point in a drama after which the plot moves steadily to its denouement. In his Poetics, Aristotle describes peripeteia as the shift of the tragic protagonist's fortune from good to bad—a shift that is essential to the plot of a tragedy. The term is also occasionally used of a similar change in actual affairs. For example, in a 2006 article in The New York Times, Michael Cooper described William Weld's second term as Massachusetts' governor as "political peripeteia": it "began with a landslide victory and ended with frustrated hopes and his resignation."

Recidivism (rih-SID-uh-viz-um)

a tendency to relapse into a previous condition or mode of behavior; especially : relapse into criminal behavior Recidivism means literally "a falling back" and usually implies "into bad habits." It comes from the Latin word recidivus, which means "recurring." Recidivus itself comes from the Latin verb recidere, which is a composite of the prefix re- and the verb cadere (meaning "to fall") and means "to fall back." Recidivists tend to relapse, or "fall back," into old habits and particularly crime. Deciduous and incident are two other English words that have roots in cadere. Deciduous comes from the verb decidere (de- plus cadere), which means "to fall off." And incident comes from incidere (in- plus cadere), which means "to fall into."

Litmus test (LIT-mus-TEST)

a test in which a single factor (such as an attitude, event, or fact) is decisive It was in the 14th century that scientists discovered that litmus, a mixture of colored organic compounds obtained from lichen, turns red in acid solutions and blue in alkaline solutions and, thus, can be used as an acid-base indicator. Six centuries later, people began using litmus test figuratively. It can now refer to any single factor that establishes the true character of something or causes it to be assigned to one category or another. Often it refers to something (such as an opinion about a political or moral issue) that can be used to make a judgment about whether someone or something is acceptable or not.

Luminaria (loo-muh-NAIR-ee-uh)

a traditional Mexican Christmas lantern originally consisting of a candle set in sand inside a paper bag Luminaria is a fairly recent addition to English; early usage dates from the 1930s, about the time that the Mexican Christmas custom started to gain popularity among Anglo-Americans. In some parts of the U.S., particularly New Mexico, these festive lanterns are also called farolitos, which means "little lanterns" in Spanish. We borrowed luminaria from Spanish, but the word has been around with exactly the same spelling since the days of Late Latin. The term ultimately traces to the classical Latin luminare, meaning "window," and to lumen, meaning "light." It is related to other light-bearing words such as luminary, illuminate, and phillumenist (a fancy name for someone who collects matchbooks).

Furlong (FER-lawng)

a unit of distance equal to 220 yards (about 201 meters) Furlong is an English original and can be traced back to Old English furlang, a combination of the noun furh ("furrow") and the adjective lang ("long"). Though now standardized as a length of 220 yards (or 1/8th of a mile), the furlong was originally defined less precisely as the length of a furrow in a cultivated field. This length was equal to the long side of an acre—an area originally defined as the amount of arable land that could be plowed by a yoke of oxen in a day, but later standardized as an area measuring 220 yards (one furlong) by 22 yards, and now defined as any area measuring 4,840 square yards. In contemporary usage, furlong is often encountered in references to horse racing.

Manifesto (man-uh-FESS-toh)

a written statement declaring publicly the intentions, motives, or views of its issuer Manifesto is related to manifest, which occurs in English as a noun, verb, and adjective. Of these, the adjective, which means "readily perceived by the senses," is oldest, dating to the 14th century. Both manifest and manifesto derive ultimately from the Latin noun manus ("hand") and -festus, a combining form of uncertain meaning that is also found in the Latin adjective infestus ("hostile"), an ancestor of the English infest. Something that is manifest is easy to perceive or recognize, and a manifesto is a statement in which someone makes his or her intentions or views easy for people to ascertain. Perhaps the most well-known statement of this sort is the Communist Manifesto, written in 1848 by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels to outline the platform of the Communist League.

Hypermnesia (hye-perm-NEE-zhee-uh)

abnormally vivid or complete memory or recall of the past Perhaps the most famous individual to exhibit hypermnesia was a Russian man known as "S," whose amazing photographic memory was studied for 30 years by a psychologist in the early part of the 20th century. Hypermnesia sometimes refers to cases like that of "S," but it can also refer to specific instances of heightened memory (such as those brought on by trauma or hypnosis) experienced by people whose memory abilities are unremarkable under ordinary circumstances. The word hypermnesia, which has been with us since about the mid-19th century, was created in New Latin as the combination of hyper- (meaning "beyond" or "super") and -mnesia (patterned after amnesia). It ultimately derives from the Greek word mnasthai, meaning "to remember."

Lenitive (LEN-uh-tiv)

alleviating pain or harshness : soothing Lenitive first appears in English in the 15th century. It derives from the Latin verb lenire ("to soften or soothe"), which was itself formed from the adjective lenis, meaning "soft" or "mild." Lenire also gave us the adjective lenient, which usually means "tolerant" or "indulgent" today but in its original sense carried the meaning of "relieving pain or stress." Often found in medical contexts, lenitive can also be a noun referring to a treatment (such as a salve) with soothing or healing properties.

Lexicographer (lek-suh-KAH-gruh-fer)

an author or editor of a dictionary Today, we're looking at a word that is dear to our hearts: lexicographer. The ancient Greeks were some of the earliest makers of dictionaries; they used them mainly to catalog obsolete terms from their rich literary past. To create a word for writers of dictionaries, the Greeks sensibly attached the suffix -graphos, meaning "writer," to lexikon, meaning "dictionary," to form lexikographos, the direct ancestor of the English word lexicographer. Lexikon, which itself descends from Greek lexis (meaning "word" or "speech"), also gave us lexicon, which can mean either "dictionary" or "the vocabulary of a language, speaker, or subject."

Never-never land

an ideal or imaginary place The phrase never-never land is linked to Peter Pan, although it did not originate with that creation of the Scottish playwright Sir James Matthew Barrie. In Barrie's original 1904 play, Peter befriends the real-world children of the Darling family and spirits them off for a visit to Never Land, where children can fly and never have to become adults. Then, in his 1908 sequel When Wendy Grew Up, Barrie changed the name to Never Never Land, and subsequent versions of the earlier play incorporated that change. People had been using never-never land for a place that was overly idealistic or romantic since at least 1900, but the influence of Peter Pan on the word's popularity and staying power cannot be discounted.

Glade (GLAYD)

an open space surrounded by woods We know that glade has been with us since at least the early 1500s, though the word's origins remain a bit of a mystery. Glade, which originally was often used not just to indicate a clearing in the woods but one which was also filled with sunlight, may come from the adjective glad. In Middle English, glad also meant "shining," a meaning that goes back to the word's Old English ancestor, glæd. Glæd is akin to Old High German glat ("shining, smooth") and Old Norse glathr ("sunny"). It may also be a relative of Old English geolu, the ancestor of the modern English word yellow.

Pugilism

boxing The sport of boxing had its Olympic initiation more than 2,500 years ago in the 23rd Olympiad of 688 BCE. The ancient Romans adopted the sport from the Greeks, and we adopted the word pugilism from them: the Latin word pugil means "boxer." (The word is related to the Latin pugnus, meaning "fist.") Boxing faded out with the decline of the Roman Empire, but resurged in popularity in the 18th century. By the century's end, pugilist and pugilism were firmly entrenched in the English lexicon, and pugilism now sees additional use in reference to metaphorical sparring, as in a political debate.

Clarion (KLAIR-ee-un)

brilliantly clear; also : loud and clear In the Middle Ages, clarion was a noun, the name for a trumpet that could play a melody in clear, shrill tones. The noun has since been used for the sound of a trumpet or a similar sound. By the early 1800s, English speakers also started using the word as an adjective for things that ring as clear as the call of a well-played trumpet. Not surprisingly, clarion ultimately derives (via the Medieval Latin clario-) from clarus, which is the Latin word for "clear." In addition, clarus gave English speakers clarify, clarity, declare ("to make clearly known"), and clear itself.

Miscible (MISS-uh-bul)

capable of being mixed; specifically : capable of mixing in any ratio without separation of two phases Miscible isn't simply a lesser-known synonym of mixable—it's also a cousin. It comes to us from the Medieval Latin adjective miscibilis, which has the same meaning as miscible and which derives, in turn, from Latin miscēre, meaning "to mix." Miscēre is also the ultimate source of our mix; its past participle mixtus (meaning "mixed") spawned mixte in Anglo-French and Middle English, and mix came about as a back-formation of mixte. The suffix -able gives us mixable, thereby completing its link to miscible. Miscible turns up most frequently in scientific discussions where it is used especially to describe fluids that don't separate when they are combined.

Gelid

extremely cold : icy Gelid first appeared in English late in the 16th century, coming to our language from Latin gelidus, which ultimately derives from the noun gelu, meaning "frost" or "cold." (The noun gelatin, which can refer to an edible jelly that undergoes a cooling process as part of its formation, comes from a related Latin word: gelare, meaning "to freeze.") Gelid is used to describe anything of extremely cold temperature (as in "the gelid waters of the Arctic Ocean"), but the word can also be used figuratively to describe a person with a cold demeanor (as in "the criminal's gelid stare").

Slimsy (SLIM-zee)

flimsy, frail The reasons why some words flourish and others fall by the lexical wayside are often unclear, but what is clear is that slimsy is firmly in the latter category: it has very little current use. This doesn't have to stop you from using it though; slimsy is a blend of slim and flimsy, and its meaning should be pretty much apparent to your audience if you're careful with the context. The word was first used in the mid-19th century and was at its peak of popularity in the early 20th. Who knows? Maybe the 21st century will see its revival.

Smithereens (smih-thuh-REENZ)

fragments, bits Despite its American sound and its common use by the fiery animated cartoon character Yosemite Sam, smithereens did not originate in American slang. Although no one is entirely positive about its precise origins, scholars think that smithereens likely developed from the Irish word smidiríní, which means "little bits." That Irish word is the diminutive of smiodar, meaning "fragment." According to print evidence, the plural form smithereens first appears in English in the late 18th century; use of singular smithereen then follows.

Cap-a-pie (kap-uh-PEE)

from head to foot Think of a medieval knight riding off to battle completely encased (from head to foot, as it were) in armor. Knights thus outfitted were said to be "armed cap-a-pie." The term cap-a-pie (or cap-à-pie), which has been used in English since at least the 16th century, descends from the Middle French phrase de cap a pé, meaning "from head to foot." Nowadays, it is generally extended to more figurative armor, as in "armed cap-a-pie against criticism." Cap-a-pie has also been credited with parenting another English phrase. Some people think the expression "apple-pie order," meaning "perfect order," may have originated as a corruption of "cap-a-pie order." The evidence for that theory is far from orderly, however, and it must be regarded as speculative.

Festinate (FESS-tuh-nayt)

hasten Festinate is one among many in the category of words whose early recorded use is in the works of William Shakespeare. He used it as an adjective (which is pronounced \FESS-tuh-nut\) in King Lear, for example: "Advise the Duke where you are going, to a most festinate preparation." Perhaps the Bard knew about festinatus, the Latin predecessor of festinate, or was familiar with the Latin proverb festina lente—"make haste slowly." Shakespeare also used the adverb festinately in Love's Labour's Lost: "Bring him festinately hither," Don Ariano de Armado orders. First evidence of the verb festinate, meaning "to hasten," occurs post-Shakespeare, however.

Higgledy-piggledy (hig-ul-dee-PIG-ul-dee)

in a confused, disordered, or random manner We really have no idea where higgledy-piggledy came from, but we do know it's a perfect demonstration of English speakers' fondness for reduplication—that is, for forming new words by repetition of a base word often with a slight change of sound. In this case, the base word might actually be the second term, which encompasses the word pig and calls to mind the association of pigs with disorderliness. Although we don't know when exactly higgledy-piggledy first appeared in print, we do know that the word has been around since before 1600. John Florio's A Worlde of Wordes, an English-Italian dictionary first published in 1598, used higgledy-piggley as a defining term for the Italian word alla rinfusa, along with two other examples of reduplication, pell-mell and helter-skelter.

Jabberwocky

meaningless speech or writing In a poem titled "Jabberwocky" in the book Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There (1872), Lewis Carroll warned his readers about a frightful beast: Beware the Jabberwock, my son! The jaws that bite, the claws that catch! Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun The frumious Bandersnatch! This nonsensical poem caught the public's fancy, and by 1908 jabberwocky was being used as a generic term for meaningless speech or writing. The word bandersnatch has also seen some use as a general noun, with the meaning "a wildly grotesque or bizarre individual." It's a much rarer word than jabberwocky, though, and is entered only in the Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary.

Parvenu (PAHR-vuh-noo)

one that has recently or suddenly risen to an unaccustomed position of wealth or power and has not yet gained the prestige, dignity, or manner associated with it French has been generous in providing us with terms for obscure folks who suddenly strike it rich. In addition to parvenu, French has loaned us nouveau riche, arriviste, and roturier, all of which can describe a rich person of plebeian origins, especially one who is a bit snobby. Those colorful and slightly disparaging terms for the newly moneyed clearly show their French heritage, but it may be harder to see the French background of a term Massachusetts locals once used for coastal merchants made rich through the fishing trade: codfish aristocracy. Codfish comes from Middle English (beyond that its origin is a mystery), but aristocracy passed into English via Middle French (it is ultimately from Greek aristos, meaning "best").

Teetotaler (TEE-TOH-tuh-ler)

one who practices or advocates teetotalism : one who abstains completely from alcoholic drinks [the principle or practice of complete abstinence from alcoholic drinks] A person who abstains from alcohol might choose tea as his or her alternative beverage, but the word teetotaler has nothing to do with tea. More likely, the "tee" that begins the word teetotal is a reduplication of the letter "t" that begins total, emphasizing that one has pledged total abstinence. In the early 1800s, tee-total and tee-totally were used to intensify total and totally, much the way we now might say, "I'm tired with a capital T." "I am now ... wholly, solely, and teetotally absorbed in Wayne's business," wrote the folklorist Parson Weems in an 1807 letter. Teetotal and teetotaler first appeared with their current meanings in 1834, eight years after the formation of the American Temperance Society.

Illiberal

opposed to liberal principles; restricting freedom of thought or behavior; Narrow-Minded

Mufti (MUFF-tee)

ordinary dress as distinguished from that denoting an occupation or station; especially : civilian clothes when worn by a person in the armed forces In the Islamic tradition, a mufti is a professional jurist who interprets Muslim law. When religious muftis were portrayed on the English stage in the early 19th century, they typically wore costumes that included a dressing gown and a tasseled cap—an outfit that some felt resembled the clothing preferred by the off-duty military officers of the day. The clothing sense of mufti, which first appeared in English around that same time, is thought to have developed out of this association of stage costume and civilian clothing.

Perigee

point in an orbit that is closest to the earth

Nomothetic (nah-muh-THET-ik)

relating to, involving, or dealing with abstract, general, or universal statements or laws Nomothetic is often contrasted with idiographic, a word meaning "relating to or dealing with something concrete, individual, or unique." Where idiographic points to the specific and unique, nomothetic points to the general and consistent. The immediate Greek parent of nomothetic is a word meaning "of legislation"; the word has its roots in nomos, meaning "law," and -thetēs, meaning "one who establishes." Nomos has played a part in the histories of words as varied as metronome, autonomous, and Deuteronomy. The English contributions of -thetēs are meager, but -thetēs itself comes from tithenai, meaning "to put," and tithenai is the ancestor of many common words ending in -thesis—hypothesis, parenthesis, prosthesis, synthesis, and thesis itself—as well as theme, epithet, and apothecary.

Adroit

skillful, expert in the use of the hands or mind

Sawbones

slang : physician, surgeon Sawbones cut its first literary tooth in Charles Dickens's 1837 novel The Pickwick Papers, when Sam Weller says to Mr. Pickwick, "Don't you know what a sawbones is, sir? ... I thought everybody know'd as a sawbones was a surgeon." An evocative term that calls to mind the saws that 19th-century surgeons used to perform amputations, sawbones quickly became an established member of the English language, employed by such authors as H. G. Wells, Mark Twain, and Robert Louis Stevenson. Mercifully, medical technology has improved dramatically since then (the surgical saws used in procedures today are a far cry from the primitive tools of yesteryear), but the word sawbones is still used, often in a humorous context.

Memento (muh-MEN-toh)

something that serves to warn or remind; also : souvenir Memento comes from the imperative form of meminisse, a Latin verb that literally means "to remember." (The term memento mori, meaning "a reminder of mortality," translates as "remember that you must die.") The history of memento makes it clear where its spelling came from, but because a memento often helps one remember a particular moment, people occasionally spell the term momento. This is usually considered a misspelling, but it appears often enough in edited prose to have been entered in most dictionaries as an acceptable variant spelling.

Acquisitive (uh-KWIZ-uh-tiv)

strongly desirous of acquiring and possessing While acquisitive is a useful synonym of the likes of greedy and avaricious, it's relatively unknown compared to its more popular lexical relations, acquire and acquisition. The former of that pair is most often used to mean "to get as one's own," as in "skills acquired through practice"; the latter refers either to the act of acquiring something, as in "the acquisition of skills," or to something or someone acquired or gained, as in "the museum's recent acquisitions." All three have as their ultimate source the Latin word acquīrere, meaning "to acquire." While acquire and acquisition have both been in use since the 15th century, acquisitive is a bit younger. The word has a somewhat rare use meaning "capable of acquiring" that dates to the late 16th century, but its "greedy" meaning dates only to the early 19th century.

Stint

supply an ungenerous or inadequate amount of (something). "stowage room hasn't been stinted" 1. a person's fixed or allotted period of work. "his varied career included a stint as a magician" 2. limitation of supply or effort. "a collector with an eye for quality and the means to indulge it without stint"

Officinal (uh-FISS-uh-nul)

tending or used to cure disease or relieve pain : medicinal Officinal is a word applied in medicine to plants and herbs that are used in medicinal preparations. For most of the 19th century, it was the standard word used by the United States Pharmacopeia to refer to the drugs, chemicals, and medicinal preparations that they recognized, but by the 1870s it was replaced by official in this context. Despite this supersession, you still can find a healthy dose of officinal in the pharmaceutical field, where it is used today as a word describing preparations that are regularly kept in stock at pharmacies. Officinal was derived from the Medieval Latin noun officina, a word for the storeroom of a monastery in which provisions and medicines were kept. In Latin, officina means "workshop."

Scilicet (SKEE-lih-ket)

that is to say : to wit, namely Scilicet is a rare word that most often occurs in legal proceedings and instruments. It is from Latin scire ("to know") and licet ("it is permitted"), which is also a root of videlicet—a synonym of scilicet. Licet, in turn, descends from the Latin verb licēre, which means "to be permitted" and is the ultimate source of the English words leisure, by way of the Anglo-French leisir ("to be permitted"), and license, which comes to us through Anglo-French from the Latin licens, the present participle of licēre. Scire has also made other contributions to English, giving us such words as conscience, conscious, and science.

Vexillology (vek-suh-LAH-luh-jee)

the study of flags "The flag is the embodiment, not of sentiment, but of history." Woodrow Wilson was speaking of the U.S. flag when he made that statement in an address in June of 1915, but those who engage in vexillology—that is, vexillologists—would likely find the comment applicable to any national banner. Vexillologists undertake scholarly investigations of flags, producing papers with titles such as "A Review of the Changing Proportions of Rectangular Flags since Medieval Times, and Some Suggestions for the Future." In the late 1950s, they coined vexillology as a name for their field of research, basing it on vexillum, the Latin term for a square flag or banner of the ancient Roman cavalry. The adjectives vexillologic and vexillological and the noun vexillologist followed soon thereafter.

Obviate (AHB-vee-ayt)

to anticipate and prevent (something, such as a situation) or make (an action) unnecessary Obviate derives from the Late Latin obviare (meaning "to meet or withstand") and the Latin obviam (meaning "in the way") and is also an ancestor of our adjective obvious. Obviate has a number of synonyms in English, including prevent, preclude, and avert; all of these words can mean "to hinder or stop something." When you prevent or preclude something, you put up an insurmountable obstacle. In addition, preclude often implies that a degree of chance was involved in stopping an event. Obviate generally suggests the use of intelligence or forethought to ward off trouble. Avert always implies that a bad situation has been anticipated and prevented or deflected by the application of immediate and effective means.

Bootless (BOOT-lus)

useless, unprofitable This sense of bootless has nothing to do with footwear. The "boot" in this case is an obsolete noun that meant "use" or "avail." That boot descended from Old English bōt and is ultimately related to our modern word better, whose remote Germanic ancestor meant literally "of more use." Of course, English does also see the occasional use of bootless to mean simply "lacking boots," as Anne Brontë used the word in Agnes Grey (1847): "And what would their parents think of me, if they saw or heard the children rioting, hatless, bonnetless, gloveless, and bootless, in the deep soft snow?"

Swilling

wash or rinse out (an area or container) by pouring large amounts of water or other liquid over or into it. "I swilled out the mug" cause (liquid) to swirl around in a container or cavity. "she gently swilled her brandy around her glass" (of a liquid) move or splash about over a surface. "the icy water swilled around us" drink (something) greedily or in large quantities. "they whiled away their evening swilling liters of tea"

Telegenic (tel-uh-JEN-ik)

well-suited to the medium of television; especially : having an appearance and manner that are markedly attractive to television viewers Telegenic debuted in the 1930s, an offspring of television and photogenic, meaning "suitable for being photographed especially because of visual appeal." The word photogenic had other, more technical meanings before it developed that one in the early decades of the 20th century, but the modern meaning led to the sense of -genic that interests us here: "suitable for production or reproduction by a given medium." That sense is found in today's word, telegenic, as well as its synonym, videogenic. Telegenic may seem like a word that would primarily be used of people, but there is evidence for telegenic describing events (such as popular sports), objects, and responses. Occasionally, one even sees reference to a telegenic attitude or other intangible.

Reprehensible

worthy of or deserving reprehension, blame, or censure: culpable Reprehensible, blameworthy, blamable, guilty, and culpable mean deserving reproach or punishment. Reprehensible is a strong word describing behavior that should evoke severe criticism. Blameworthy and blamable apply to any kind of act, practice, or condition considered to be wrong in any degree ("conduct adjudged blameworthy"; "an accident for which no one is blamable"). Guilty implies responsibility for or consciousness of crime, sin, or, at the least, grave error or misdoing ("guilty of a breach of etiquette"). Culpable is weaker than guilty and is likely to connote malfeasance or errors of ignorance, omission, or negligence ("culpable neglect").

一。family; home 二。electricity 三。word; talk 四。telephone 五。number (use only one character) 六。number(use two characters) [room number; phone number] 七。few; little 八。how many; how much 九。to live 十。which 十一。where 十二。Beijing 十三。你住在哪儿？ 十四。你家的电话号码是多少？ 十五。你家住在哪儿？

一。家 二。电 三。话 四。电话 五。码 六。号码 七。小 八。多少 九。住 十。哪 十一。哪儿 十二。北京 十三。我住在【location】。 十四。我家的电话号码是【number】。 十五。我家住在【location】。

Helmsmanship

(n) the skill or function of a man who steers a ship. 'the principles that govern the helmsmanship of marine vessels'

Potpourri

(n.) a collection of diverse or miscellaneous items; a general mixture; petals mixed with spices for scent

Requisition

(n.) a demand for goods, usually made by an authority (During the war, the government made a requisition of supplies.)

Sinking Fund

A sinking fund is an account established for accumulating funds to meet future obligations or debts.

Furbelowed

Adorned with Trimmings

Circumspect

careful to consider all circumstances and possible consequences : prudent Circumspect, cautious, wary, and chary all imply looking before you leap, but each puts a unique spin on being careful in the face of risk or danger. Circumspect, which descends from Latin circum- ("around") and specere ("to look"), implies the surveying of all possible consequences before acting or deciding (as in "he is circumspect in business dealings"). Cautious suggests fear of danger and the exercise of forethought that it prompts (as in "a cautious driver"). Wary emphasizes suspiciousness and alertness in sensing danger and cunning in escaping it (as in "keep a wary eye on the competition"). Chary implies a cautious reluctance to give, act, or speak freely (as in "she is chary of signing papers without reading them first").

Chauvinistic

intolerant, bigoted, biased

橘子

中国橘子很甜。 Chinese oranges are very sweet. júzi Zhōngguó júzi hěn tián. Orange

写

我不会写汉字。 I can not write Chinese characters. xiě Wǒ búhuì xiě hànzì. to write

飞机

我乘飞机去中国。 I take an airplane to go to China. fēijī Wǒ chéng fēijī qù zhōngguó. Airplane

Lycanthropy (lye-KAN-thruh-pee)

1 : a delusion that one has become a wolf 2 : the assumption of the form and characteristics of a wolf held to be possible by witchcraft or magic If you happen to be afflicted with lycanthropy, the full moon is apt to cause you an inordinate amount of distress. Lycanthropy can refer to either the delusional idea that one is a wolf or to the werewolf transformations that have been the stuff of superstitions for centuries. In some cultures, similar myths involve human transformation into other equally feared animals: hyenas and leopards in Africa, for example, and tigers in Asia. The word lycanthropy itself, however, comes from the Greek words lykos, meaning "wolf," and anthrōpos, meaning "human being." Werewolf myths are usually associated with the phases of the moon; the animal nature of the werewolf (or lycanthrope) is typically thought to take over when the moon is full.

Aphorism (AF-uh-riz-um)

1 : a concise statement of a principle 2 : a terse formulation of a truth or sentiment : adage 3 : an ingeniously terse style of expression Aphorism was originally used in the world of medicine. Credit Hippocrates, the Greek physician regarded as the father of modern medicine, with influencing our use of the word. He used aphorismos (a Greek ancestor of aphorism meaning "definition" or "aphorism") in titling a book outlining his principles on the diagnosis and treatment of disease. That volume offered many examples that helped to define aphorism, beginning with the statement that starts the book's introduction: "Life is short, Art long, Occasion sudden and dangerous, Experience deceitful, and Judgment difficult." English speakers originally used the term mainly in the realm of the physical sciences but eventually broadened its use to cover principles in other fields.

Dilatory

1: tending or intended to cause delay- dilatory tactics 2: characterized by procrastination : TARDY - dilatory in paying bills

Jink (JINK)

: to move quickly or unexpectedly with sudden turns and shifts (as in dodging) Besides the fact that jink first appears in Scottish English, the exact origins of this shifty little word are unknown. What can be said with certainty is that the word has always expressed a quick or unexpected motion. For instance, in two poems from 1785, Robert Burns uses jink as a verb to indicate both the quick motion of a fiddler's elbow and the sudden disappearance of a cheat around a corner. In the 20th century, the verb caught on with air force pilots and rugby players, who began using it to describe their elusive maneuvers to dodge opponents and enemies. Jink can also be used as a noun meaning "a quick evasive turn" or, in its plural form, "pranks." The latter use was likely influenced by the term high jinks, which originally referred in the late 17th century to a Scottish drinking game and later came to refer to horseplay.

Dep

A stand-in for someone else

Galley

Kitchen in a ship or aircraft; low ship with sails (rowed along by slaves)

Whinge (WINJ)

British : to complain fretfully : whine Whinge isn't a simple spelling variant of whine. Whinge and whine are actually entirely different words with separate histories. Whine traces to an Old English verb, hwinan, which means "to make a humming or whirring sound." When hwinan became whinen in Middle English, it meant "to wail distressfully"; whine didn't acquire its "complain" sense until the 16th century. Whinge, on the other hand, comes from a different Old English verb, hwinsian, which means "to wail or moan discontentedly." Whinge retains that original sense today, though nowadays it puts less emphasis on the sound of the complaining and more on the discontentment behind the complaint.

Pronoid

['Characterized by the belief (especially when viewed as irrational) in the goodwill of others or the pervasiveness of serendipity. Opposed to paranoid adj. Cf. pronoia n.2'] Pronunciation: Brit. /ˈprəʊnɔɪd/, U.S. /ˈproʊnɔɪd/ Origin: Formed within English, by derivation. Etymons: pronoia n.2, -oid suffix. Etymology: < pronoia n.2 + -oid suffix, after paranoid adj. Compare pronoid n. Characterized by the belief (especially when viewed as irrational) in the goodwill of others or the pervasiveness of serendipity. Opposed to paranoid adj. Cf. pronoia n.2 1982 F. H. Goldner in Social Probl. 30 84 I am interested in the manifestations of pronoia and in the conditions that encourage or produce pronoid behavior. 1997 I. Johnstone Fierce Creatures xii. 176 You've heard of paranoid, right? It means you think that everybody's out to get you. Well pronoid is precisely the opposite. 2019 Observer(Nexis) 10 Mar. (New Review section) 42/5 Campbell talks of being sectioned wearing rainbow-coloured knickers on her head and being pronoid (the opposite of paranoia—everyone is conspiring to help you).

amouring, n.

['Courtship, wooing, lovemaking.']

Earthfast

['Esp. of a stone: fixed in the ground. Also figurative.']

Anemious, adj.

['Exposed to wind; windswept.']

Futzing

['Ineffectual or trifling activity; messing about; tinkering. Chiefly with around.'] colloquial (originally Australian, now chiefly North American). "The fiddling and futzing in the paddock is only to gain time for the grafters." "After a bit of futzing about everything worked out quite nicely." "After all the cuts and retries and general futzing around"

Acheronian

['Of, relating to, or suggestive of the underworld of the ancient Greeks, or the mythical river Acheron (see Acheron n.); infernal, hellish; dark, gloomy.'] 1905 J. Douglas Man in Pulpit xxxii. 144 The Thames is a symphony of Acheronian gloom. 2007 Atlanta (Georgia) Jrnl.-Constit.(Nexis) 30 Nov. (Movies & More section) 2 Pray tell, what does the perspicacious Mr. Smithee believe to be the most acheronian, melancholy and tenebrific of this morose sub-genre?

Steward

a person who is given both the authority over what he or she cares for and the responsibility for seeing that it lives and grows To manage the supplies of a person or group

Idée fixe (ee-day-FEEKS)

an idea that dominates one's mind especially for a prolonged period : obsession The term idée fixe is a 19th-century French coinage. French writer Honoré de Balzac used it in his 1830 novella Gobseck to describe an obsessive idea. By 1836, Balzac's more generalized use of the term had carried over into English, where idée fixe was embraced as a clinical and literary term for a persistent preoccupation or delusional idea that dominates a person's mind. Although it is still used in both psychology and music, nowadays idée fixe is also applied to milder and more pedestrian obsessions.

Adscititious (ad-suh-TISH-us)

derived or acquired from something extrinsic Adscititious comes from a very "knowledgeable" family—it ultimately derives from scīscere, the Latin verb meaning "to get to know, ascertain, vote for, approve." The related scīre means "to know" and is fundamental to science, conscience, prescience ("foreknowledge"), nescience ("lack of knowledge"), as well as adscititious. Admittedly, adscititious is more akin to adscīscere, which means "to admit" or "to adopt." This explains why adscititious describes something adopted from an outside source.

Meritorious

deserving of honor or esteem People who demonstrate meritorious behavior certainly earn our respect, and you can use that fact to remember that meritorious ultimately traces to the Latin verb merēre, which means "to earn." Nowadays, the rewards earned for meritorious acts are likely to be of an immaterial nature: gratitude, admiration, praise, etc. But that wasn't always so. The history of meritorious recalls a reward more concrete in nature: money. The Latin word meritorius, an ancestor of the English meritorious, literally means "bringing in money."

Guileless

free of cunning or deceit; artless

Thence

from a place or source previously mentioned. "they intended to cycle on into France and thence home via Belgium" as a consequence. "studying maps to assess past latitudes and thence an indication of climate" from that time, place, or point onward. "thenceforth he made his life in England"

Puckish

impish [of, relating to, or befitting an imp- especially : MISCHIEVOUS], whimsical We know Puck as "that merry wanderer of the night," the shape-changing, maiden-frightening, mischief-sowing henchman to the king of the fairies in William Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream. The Bard drew on English folklore in casting his character, but the traditional Puck was more malicious than the Shakespearean imp; he was an evil spirit or demon. In medieval England, this nasty hobgoblin was known as the puke or pouke, names related to the Old Norse pūki, meaning "devil." (There is no connection to modern English puke.) But it was the Bard's characterization that stuck, and by the time the adjective puckish started appearing regularly in English texts in the 1800s the association was one of impishness, not evil.

Bemoan

lament; moan for; express sorrow or disapproval of

Jaunty

sprightly in manner or appearance : lively You might not guess that the words jaunty and genteel are related—but they are. Both words evolved from the French word gentil, which carried the sense of "noble." At first jaunty was used, like genteel, for things aristocratic, but as the years went by people stopped using it that way. Today jaunty is used to describe things that are lively and perky rather than things that are aristocratic and elegant.

Supplant

to take the place of, supersede

一。今天是几月几号？ 二。明天是几月几号？ 三。昨天是几月几号？ 四。今天是星期几？ 五。明天星期几？ 六。今年是哪一年？(The yi is not necessary)

一。今天是【month】月【day】号。 二。明天是【month】月【day】号。 三。昨天是【month】月【day】号。 四。今天是星期【day】。 五。明天星期【day】 六。今年是【year】年。

礼物

你的圣诞礼物是什么？ What is your Christmas gift? lǐwù Nǐ de shèngdàn lǐwù shì shénme? Gift

跳舞

她跳舞跳得很好。 She dances very well. tiàowǔ Tā tiàowǔ tiào de hěnhao. to dance

女儿

我女儿还很小。 My daughter is still young. nǚer Wǒ nǚér hái hěn xiǎo. daughter

到

火车到了。 The train has arrived. dào Huǒchē dào le. to arrive

Saturnine

(adj.) of a gloomy or surly disposition; cold or sluggish in mood

Curt

(adj.) short, rudely brief

Hardy

(adj.) able to bear up under difficult conditions or harsh treatment; brave and tough

Squeamish

(adj.) inclined to nausea; easily shocked or upset; excessively fastidious or refined

Debacle

(n.) an overwhelming defeat, rout [Rout - a disorderly retreat of defeated troops. "the retreat degenerated into a rout"] ; a complete collapse or failure

Metathesis (muh-TATH-uh-sis)

- a change of place or condition: such as a : transposition of two phonemes in a word b : a chemical reaction in which different kinds of molecules exchange parts to form other kinds of molecules One familiar example of metathesis is the English word thrill, which was thyrlian in Old English and thirlen in Middle English. By the late 16th century, native English speakers had switched the placement of the r to form thrill. Another example is the alteration of curd into crud (the earliest sense of which was, unsurprisingly, curd). It probably won't surprise you to learn that the origin of metathesis lies in the idea of transposition—the word was borrowed into English in the mid-16th century and derives via Late Latin from the Greek verb metatithenai, meaning "to transpose."

Farouche (fuh-ROOSH)

1 : unruly or disorderly : wild 2 : marked by shyness and lack of social graces In French, farouche can mean "wild" or "shy," just as it does in English. It is an alteration of the Old French word forasche, which derives via Late Latin forasticus ("living outside") from Latin foras, meaning "outdoors." In its earliest English uses, in the middle of the 18th century, farouche was used to describe someone who was awkward in social situations, perhaps as one who has lived apart from groups of people. The word can also mean "disorderly," as in "farouche ruffians out to cause trouble."

Skirl (SKERL)

1 of a bagpipe : to emit the high shrill tone of the chanter; also : to give forth music 2 : to play (music) on the bagpipe Not every musical instrument is honored with its very own verb. But then, not every musical instrument emits a sound that quite matches that of a bagpipe. Depending on your ear, you might think bagpipes "give forth music," or you might be more apt to say they "shriek." If you are of the latter opinion, your thinking aligns with the earliest sense of skirl—"to shriek." That early sense was used of screeching maids, winds, and the like. Scottish poet Robert Sempill first used it for bagpipes in the mid-1600s. The meaning of skirl has shifted over time, however, and these days you can use the verb without causing offense to bagpipers and bagpipe enthusiasts.

Haggard (HAG-urd)

1 of a hawk : not tamed 2 a : wild in appearance b : having a worn or emaciated appearance : gaunt Haggard comes from falconry, the sport of hunting with a trained bird of prey. The birds used in falconry were not bred in captivity until very recently. Traditionally, falconers trained wild birds that were either taken from the nest when quite young or trapped as adults. A bird trapped as an adult is termed a haggard, from the Middle French hagard. Such a bird is notoriously wild and difficult to train, and it wasn't long before the falconry sense of haggard was being applied in an extended way to a "wild" and intractable person. Next, the word came to express the way the human face looks when a person is exhausted, anxious, or terrified. Today, the most common meaning of haggard is "gaunt" or "worn."

Abide

1. a : to bear patiently : tolerate b : to endure without yielding : withstand 2 : to wait for : await 3 : to accept without objection 4 : to remain stable or fixed in a state 5 : to continue in a place : sojourn Abide may sound rather old-fashioned these days. The word has been around since before the 12th century, but it is a bit rare now, except in certain specialized uses. Even more archaic to our modern ear is abidden, the original past participle of abide. Today, both the past tense and the past participle of abide are served by either abode or abided, with abided being the more frequent choice. Abide turns up often in the phrase "can't (or couldn't) abide." The expression abide by, which means "to conform to" or "to acquiesce in," is also common. Related terms include the participial adjective abiding (which means "enduring" or "continuing," as in "an abiding interest in nature"), the noun abidance ("continuance" or "compliance"), and the noun abode ("residence").

Collogue

1. dialect : intrigue, conspire 2. to talk privately : confer Collogue has been with us since the 17th century, but beyond that little is known about its origin. In his 1755 dictionary, Samuel Johnson defined collogue as "to wheedle, to flatter; to please with kind words." The "intrigue or conspire" meaning of collogue was also common in Johnson's day; the fact that Johnson missed it suggests that the meaning may have been used primarily in a dialect unfamiliar to him. Evidence of the "confer" sense of the word appears in the 19th century. Walter Scott used it in an 1811 letter, writing "We shall meet and collogue upon it." Today, the word is mostly used by the Irish.

Rabble (RAB-ul)

1: a disorganized or confused collection of things 2 a : a disorganized or disorderly crowd of people : mob b : the lowest class of people Rabble has been with the English language since its appearance in Middle English (as rabel) around the turn of the 15th century. The Middle English rabel (originally used to denote a pack or swarm of animals or insects) may have come from the verb rabel which meant "to babble" (despite the similarity in sound and meaning, however, babble and rabble are linguistically unrelated). The verb rabel is related to Middle Dutch rabbelen and Low German rabbeln, meaning "to speak rapidly or indistinctly" or "to chatter." So how do we get from babbling to crowds of people? The connecting link may be the idea of confusion. Rabble, in its earliest uses, could indicate a pack of animals, a swarm of insects, or a confused collection of things, in addition to a confused or meaningless string of words.

Iatrogenesis

: inadvertent and preventable induction of disease or complications by the medical treatment or procedures of a physician or surgeon

Mea Culpa (may-uh-KOOL-puh)

a formal acknowledgment of personal fault or error Mea culpa, which means "through my fault" in Latin, comes from a prayer of confession in the Catholic Church. Said by itself, it's an exclamation of apology or remorse that is used to mean "It was my fault" or "I apologize." Mea culpa is also a noun, however. A newspaper might issue a mea culpa for printing inaccurate information, or a politician might give a speech making mea culpas for past wrongdoings. Mea culpa is one of many English terms that derive from the Latin culpa, meaning "guilt." Some other examples are culpable ("meriting condemnation or blame especially as wrong or harmful"), culprit ("one guilty of a crime or a fault"), and exculpate ("to clear from alleged fault or guilt").

Melisma

a group of notes sung to one syllable of text

Manticore

a legendary animal with the head of a man, the body of a lion, and the tail of a dragon or scorpion A mythical creature of ancient fables, the manticore keeps company with the better-known unicorn, dragon, and griffin. Descriptions of the manticore's features sometimes differ (some accounts mention porcupine quills or poisonous spikes, for example; others depict the tail as having a serpent's head), but the animal is by all accounts a dreadful beast. The word manticore came to English through the Greek mantichōras and Latin mantichora, and is probably ultimately of Iranian origin. Etymologists think it is related to an Old Persian word for "man-eater."

Melancholia

a mental condition and especially a manic-depressive condition characterized by extreme depression, bodily complaints, and often hallucinations and delusions Today's word traces back to Greek melan‑ ("black, dark") and cholē ("bile"). Medical practitioners once adhered to the system of humors—bodily fluids that included black bile, yellow bile, blood, and phlegm. An imbalance of these humors was thought to lead to disorders of the mind and body. One suffering from an excess of black bile (believed to be secreted by the kidneys or spleen) could become sullen and unsociable—liable to anger, irritability, brooding, and depression. Today, doctors no longer ascribe physical and mental disorders to disruptions of the four humors, but the word melancholia is still used in psychiatry (it is identified as a "subtype" of clinical depression in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders) and as a general term for despondency. The older term melancholy, ultimately from the same Greek roots, is historically a synonym of melancholia but now more often refers to a sad or pensive mood.

Rapporteur (ra-por-TER)

a person who gives reports (as at a meeting of a learned society) Rapporteur was adopted into English in the 16th century and is a descendant of the Middle French verb rapporter, meaning "to bring back, report, or refer." Other descendants of rapporter in English include rapportage (a rare synonym of reportage, in the sense of "writing intended to give an account of observed or documented events") and rapport ("a harmonious relationship," as in "The young teacher had a good rapport with the students"). The words report, reporter, reportage, etc., are also distant relatives of rapporteur; all can ultimately be traced back to the Latin prefix re-, meaning "back, again, or against," and the Latin word portare, meaning "to carry."

Interlocutors

a person who takes part in a dialogue or conversation

Zibeline (ZIB-uh-leen)

a soft lustrous wool fabric with mohair [a fabric or yarn made wholly or in part of the long silky hair of the Angora goat] , alpaca, or camel's hair Though zibeline is woven from the hair of alpacas, camels, or Angora goats, its name actually traces back to a Slavic word for the sable, a small mammal related to the weasel. The Slavic term was adopted into Old Italian, and from there it passed to Middle French, then on to English in the late 1500s. English zibeline originally referred to the sable or its fur, but in the 19th century it developed a second sense, applying to a soft, smooth, slightly furry material woven from a mixture of animal hairs. It's especially suited to women's suits and coats, or, as a fashion columnist in the December 6, 1894 issue of Vogue observed, "Zibeline ... makes an exceedingly pretty, warm theatre cloak, not too fine to be crushed into the small one-chair space."

Yen (YEN)

a strong desire or propensity; also : urge, craving Although yen suggests no more than a strong longing these days (as in "a yen for a beach vacation"), at one time someone with a yen was in deep trouble indeed. The first meaning of yen was an intense craving for opium. The late 19th-century English term evolved from the Cantonese yīn-yáhn, which itself combines yīn, meaning "opium," and yáhn, meaning "craving." In English, the Chinese syllables were transformed to yen-yen and ultimately abbreviated to simply yen. Eventually, yen was generalized to the more innocuous meaning of "a strong desire," and the link to drug cravings was lost. (The name for the Japanese currency comes from Japanese en, an earlier Japanese word meaning "circle," referring to the shape of a coin.)

Croesus (KREE-sus)

a very rich man The original Croesus was a 6th-century B.C. king of Lydia, an ancient kingdom in what is now Turkey. Croesus conquered many surrounding regions, grew very wealthy, and became the subject of legends. In one legend, he was visited by Solon, the wise Athenian lawgiver. (Historians say this isn't chronologically possible, but it makes a good story.) Solon supposedly told Croesus, who thought he had everything: "Account no man happy before his death." These words made Croesus angry, and he threw the lawmaker out of his court. Croesus would rethink Solon's pronouncement later when his empire was overthrown by the Persians. Croesus' name shows up in the phrase "rich as Croesus," meaning "filthy rich," and it has also entered English as a generic term for someone extremely wealthy.

Anent (uh-NENT) [preposition]

about, concerning Anent looks like a rather old-fashioned word, and it is, in fact, very old: an earlier sense of the word can be found in Beowulf, from approximately 800 C.E. Anent was at one point almost obsolete—it had nearly died out by the 17th century—but it was revived in the 19th century. Various usage commentators have decried anent as "affected" and "archaic." The former complaint seems like a harsh judgment, and the latter is untrue: although anent is rarely heard in speech, examples of current use can easily be found in written sources, especially in Scottish English. Once a favored preposition in Scots law, it turns up today in the occasional letter to the editor ("Anent your article on..."). Dead words do occasionally rise from the grave, and anent is one of them.

Mores

accepted standards and customs of a social group

Finagle

achieve something by means of trickery or devious methods

Effigy (EFF-uh-jee)

an image or representation especially of a person; especially : a crude figure representing a hated person An earlier sense of effigy is "a likeness of a person shaped out of stone or other materials," so it's not surprising to learn that effigy derives, by way of Middle French, from the Latin effigies, which, in turn, comes from the verb effingere ("to form"), a combination of the prefix ex- and fingere, which means "to shape." Fingere is the common ancestor of a number of other English nouns that name things you can shape. A fiction is a story you shape with your imagination. Figments are shaped by the imagination, too; they're something you imagine or make up. A figure can be a numeral, a shape, or a picture that you shape as you draw or write.

Luftmensch (LOOFT-mensh (the "OO" is as in "foot"))

an impractical contemplative person having no definite business or income Are you one of those people who always seem to have their head in the clouds? Do you have trouble getting down to the lowly business of earning a living? If so, you may deserve to be labeled a luftmensch. That airy appellation is an adaptation of the Yiddish luftmentsh, which breaks down into luft (a Germanic root meaning "air" that is also related to the English words loft and lofty) plus mentsh, meaning "human being." One of the earliest known uses of luftmensch in English prose is found in Israel Zangwill's 1907 story collection Ghetto Comedies, in which he writes, "The word 'Luftmensch' flew into Barstein's mind. Nehemiah was not an earth-man.... He was an air-man, floating on facile wings." The plural form of the noun is luftmenschen.

Pusillanimous

contemptibly cowardly or mean-spirited

Ascendency

controlling influence; domination Example: I was born in the wrong sign, of the wrong home, of the wrong ascendancy.

Polemical

controversial; argumentative

Dilapidated

decayed, deteriorated, or fallen into partial ruin especially through neglect or misuse Something that is dilapidated may not have been literally pummeled with stones, but it might look that way. Dilapidated derives (via the English verb dilapidate) from dilapidatus, the past participle of the Latin verb dilapidare ("to squander or destroy"). That verb was formed by combining dis-, meaning "apart," with the verb lapidare, meaning "to pelt with stones." Other English descendants of lapidare include the verb lapidate ("to pelt or kill with stones") and the noun lapidary, which is used to refer to a person who cuts or polishes precious stones. Both words share as a root the Latin noun lapis, meaning "stone." We also find lapis in the name lapis lazuli, a bright blue semiprecious stone.

Clairvoyant

exceptionally insightful, able to foresee the future

Doting

excessively fond, loving to excess

Xenophobia

fear and hatred of strangers or foreigners or of anything that is strange or foreign If you look back to the ancient Greek terms that underlie the word xenophobia, you'll discover that xenophobic individuals are literally "stranger fearing." Xenophobia, that elegant-sounding name for an aversion to persons unfamiliar, ultimately derives from two Greek terms: xenos, which can be translated as either "stranger" or "guest," and phobos, which means either "fear" or "flight." Phobos is the ultimate source of all English -phobia terms, but many of those were actually coined in English or New Latin using the combining form -phobia. Xenophobia itself came to us by way of New Latin and first appeared in print in English in the late 19th century.

Notorious (noh-TOR-ee-us)

generally known and talked of; especially : widely and unfavorably known Notorious was adopted into English in the 16th century from Medieval Latin notorius, itself from Late Latin's noun notorium, meaning "information" or "indictment." Notorium, in turn, derives from the Latin verb noscere, meaning "to come to know." Although notorious can be a synonym of famous, meaning simply "widely known," it long ago developed the additional implication of someone or something unpleasant or undesirable. The Book of Common Prayer of 1549 includes one of the first known uses of the unfavorable meaning in print, referring to "notorious synners."

Pugnacious; Pugnacity

having a quarrelsome or combative nature : truculent: inclined to quarrel or fight readily; quarrelsome; belligerent Pugnacious individuals are often looking for a fight. While unpleasant, at least their fists are packing an etymological punch. Pugnacious comes from the Latin verb pugnare (meaning "to fight"), which in turn comes from the Latin word for "fist," pugnus. Another Latin word related to pugnus is pugil, meaning "boxer." Pugil is the source of our word pugilist, which means "fighter" and is used especially of professional boxers. Pugnare has also given us impugn ("to assail by words or arguments"), oppugn ("to fight against"), and repugnant (which is now used primarily in the sense of "exciting distaste or aversion," but which has also meant "characterized by contradictory opposition" and "hostile").

Nonchalant

having an air of easy unconcern or indifference Since nonchalant ultimately comes from words meaning "not" and "be warm," it's no surprise that the word is all about keeping one's cool. The French word nonchalant, which strolled into English in the 1700s, has essentially held the same meaning in English as in French. It was derived from the Old French verb nonchaloir ("to disregard") and can be traced back to Latin non ("not") and calēre," meaning "to be warm." Unconcerned is one synonym of nonchalant, along with casual, complacent, and insouciant.

Nonpareil (nahn-puh-REL)

having no equal Trace nonpareil back to its Middle French origins, and you'll find that it comes from a term meaning "not equal." Pareil itself comes from a Vulgar Latin form of par, which means "equal." Nonpareil has served as an English adjective since the 15th century, and since about the turn of the 16th century, it has also functioned as a noun describing an individual of unequaled excellence. In 1612, Captain John Smith used the term in that noun sense (but with a now-archaic spelling): "Pocahontas, Powhatan's daughter ... was the very Nomparell of his kingdome, and at most not past 13 or 14 years of age." And as you may know, nonpareil is also the name of a chocolate candy covered with white sugar pellets.

Passim (PASS-im)

in one place and another : here and there Passim is from the Latin word passus ("scattered"), itself from pandere, meaning "to spread." Pandere is the root of the common word expand and the not-so-common word repand, meaning "having a slightly undulating margin" (as in "a repand leaf" or "a repand colony of bacteria"). It is also the progenitor of pace, as in "keep up a steady pace." Passim itself appears in English both on its own and as part of the adverb sic passim, which means "so throughout." Sic passim is typically used to indicate that a word or idea is to be found at various places throughout a book or a writer's work.

Prologue

introductory remarks in a speech, play or literary work, introductory action

Imperturbable

marked by extreme calm, impassivity, and steadiness : serene There is an interesting time lag between the appearance of imperturbable and its antonym, perturbable. Although imperturbable is known to have existed since the middle of the 15th century, perturbable didn't show up in written English until 1800. The verb perturb (meaning "to disquiet" or "to throw into confusion") predates both imperturbable and perturbable; it has been part of English since the 14th century. All three words derive from Latin perturbare (also meaning "to throw into confusion"), which in turn comes from the combination of per- (meaning "thoroughly") and turbare, which means "to disturb." Other relatives of imperturbable include disturb and turbid.

Puissant (PWISS-unt)

of great force or vigor : strong, powerful Puissant has some powerful ties to some more commonplace English words. Although puissant has a considerably fancier feel than power and potent, all three words share the same Latin ancestor: posse, a verb meaning "to be able." (English posse, meaning "a group of people sharing some common interest," is also related to the Latin verb but came into the language via the Medieval Latin phrase posse comitatus, literally "power of the county.") Potent came from potent-, potens, a present participle of posse. Power came to us by way of Anglo-French poer, which itself comes from a Vulgar Latin alteration of posse. From poer also came the Anglo-French adjective pussant, meaning "able" or "powerful," and English speakers borrowed that to form puissant in the 15th century.

Natatory

of or relating to swimming

Bombast (BAHM-bast)

pretentious inflated speech or writing The original meaning of bombast in English was "cotton or other material used as padding or stuffing." It is derived through Anglo-French bombés or bombace, from a Medieval Latin word (of various forms, including bambax and bombax) meaning "cotton plant, cotton fiber or wadding." Bombax was once thought to be a corruption of bombyx, a Latin (and ultimately Greek) word that means "silkworm" or "silk," although etymologists weren't certain why the shift from silk to cotton occurred. It turns out, however, that bombast's origins are more direct and unassuming: the Latin bombax is not a product of the silky bombyx but was borrowed from the Middle Greek bámbax, pámbax, which in turn probably traces back to the Middle Persian pambak ("cotton"). Bombast is no longer used in the sense of cotton padding or stuffing, but the word has been retained in modern English in a figurative sense referring to speech or writing that is stuffed or padded with pretense and unnecessary verbiage.

Imputation

represent (something, especially something undesirable) as being done, caused, or possessed by someone; attribute. "the crimes imputed to Richard" attribute; ascribe; assign; credit; accredit; chalk up; connect with · associate with; lay on; lay at the door of; pin on; stick on [finance] assign (a value) to something by inference from the value of the products or processes to which it contributes. "recovering the initial outlay [an amount of money spent on something] plus imputed interest" [theology] ascribe (righteousness, guilt, etc.) to someone by virtue of a similar quality in another. "Christ's righteousness has been imputed to us"

Seditious

resistant to lawful authority

Multi-hyphenate

someone who does several different jobs, especially in the entertainment industry: Timberlake has continued his growth as a full-fledged, multi-hyphenate: singer/film actor/comedy-sketch player and record-label mogul. Peter Gerard was one of the era's multi-hyphenates, having written, starred in, and directed two hit movies. He is the ultimate multi-hyphenate: singer-actor-producer-writer-entrepreneur. One can only imagine what the multi-hyphenate will do next. In some cases, roles are blurred so as to create multi-hyphenates.

Magniloquent (mag-NIL-uh-kwunt)

speaking in or characterized by a high-flown often bombastic style or manner Magnus means "great" in Latin; loqui is a Latin verb meaning "to speak." Combine the two and you get magniloquus, the Latin predecessor of magniloquent. English-speakers started using magniloquent in the 1600s—even though we have had its synonym grandiloquent since the 1500s. (Grandiloquent comes from Latin grandiloquus, which combines loqui and grandis, another word for "great" in Latin.) Today, these synonyms continue to exist side by side and to be used interchangeably, though grandiloquent is the more common of the two.

Etiquette (ET-ih-kut)

the conduct or procedure required by good breeding or prescribed by authority to be observed in social or official life The French word étiquette means "ticket" or "label attached to something for identification." In 16th-century Spain, the French word was borrowed (and altered to etiqueta) to refer to the written protocols describing orders of precedence and behavior demanded of those who appeared at court. Eventually, etiqueta came to be applied to the court ceremonies themselves as well as the documents which outlined the requirements for them. Interestingly, this then led to French speakers of the time attributing the second sense of "proper behavior" to their étiquette, and in the middle of the 18th century English speakers finally adopted both the word and the second meaning from the French.

Acquiesce (ak-wee-ESS)

to accept, comply, or submit tacitly or passively —often used with in or to Acquiesce means essentially "to comply quietly," so it should not surprise you to learn that it is ultimately derived from the Latin verb quiēscere, meaning "to be quiet." It arrived in English in the early 1600s, via the French acquiescer, with the senses "to agree or comply" and "to rest satisfied" (this latter sense is now obsolete). An early example of the word acquiesce in the sense of "to agree or comply" can be found in the writings of the English philosopher Thomas Hobbes who, in his 1651 masterpiece, Leviathan, argued that people must subject themselves completely to a sovereign and should obey the teachings of the church. Encouraging his readers to adopt his position he wrote, "Our Beleefe ... is in the Church; whose word we take, and acquiesce therein."

Jilt (JILT)

to cast off or reject (someone, such as a lover) capriciously or unfeelingly Jilt traces back to the English dialect noun jillet ("a flirtatious girl"), itself from Jill or Gill (used both as a proper name and as a noun meaning "girl") plus the diminutive suffix -et. Jilt itself came into use in the second half of the 17th century as a noun meaning "an unchaste woman" (a sense that is now obsolete) or "a woman who capriciously casts a lover aside," and also as a verb used for the actions of such a woman. These days, the person doing the jilting can be either male or female, and though jilt usually implies the sudden ending of a romantic relationship, it can also be used beyond the context of a romantic relationship with the broader meaning "to sever close relations with."

Transmogrify

to change or alter greatly and often with grotesque or humorous effect We know that the prefix trans- means "across" or "beyond" and appears in many words that evoke change, such as transform and transpire, but we don't know the exact origins of transmogrify. The 17th-century dramatist, novelist, and poet Aphra Behn, who is regarded as England's first female professional writer, was an early adopter of the word. In her 1671 comic play The Amorous Prince, Behn wrote, "I wou'd Love would transmogriphy me to a maid now." A century later, Scottish poet Robert Burns plied the word again in verse, aptly capturing the grotesque and sometimes humorous effect of transmogrification: "See Social life and Glee sit down, All joyous and unthinking, Till, quite transmugrify'd, they're grown Debauchery and Drinking...."

Eventuate (ih-VEN-chuh-wayt)

to come out finally : result, come about Eventuate started life as an Americanism in the late 18th century, and was stigmatized in the 19th century. One British commentator called it "another horrible word, which is fast getting into our language through the provincial press." Other British grammarians, and even some Americans, agreed that it was horrible. Eventuate is less controversial these days, though its use is still regarded by the occasional critic as pompous, ponderous, and unnecessary. In any case, eventuate has a perfectly respectable history. It is derived from the Latin noun eventus ("event"), which in turn traces to the verb evenire, meaning "to happen."

Reify (RAY-uh-fye)

to consider or represent (something abstract) as a material or concrete thing : to give definite content and form to (a concept or idea) Reify is a word that attempts to provide a bridge between what is abstract and what is real. Fittingly, it derives from a word that is an ancestor to real—the Latin noun res, meaning "thing." Both reify and the related noun reification first appeared in English in the mid-19th century. Each word combines the Latin res with an English suffix (-fy and -fication, respectively) that is derived from the Latin -ficare, meaning "to make." In general use, the words refer to the act of considering or presenting an abstract idea in real or material terms, or of judging something by a concrete example.

Abscond (ab-SKAHND)

to depart secretly and hide oneself Abscond derives from Latin abscondere, meaning "to hide away," a product of the prefix ab- and condere, a verb meaning "to conceal." (Condere is also the root for recondite, a word meaning "concealed" as well as "hard to understand" or "obscure.") Abscond retained the meaning of its Latin parent when it was first used in English in the 17th century. In general usage, abscond refers to any act of running away and hiding (usually from the law and often with funds), but in legal circles, the word is used specifically when someone who has already become the focus of a legal proceeding hides or takes off in order to evade the legal process, as in "absconded from parole."

Buttonhole

to detain in conversation by or as if by holding on to the outer garments of Buttonhole is easy to pin down as a noun referring to the slit or loop through which a button is passed to fasten something, but its shift to a verb meaning "to detain in conversation" requires some explanation. Buttonhole is an alteration of another verb now long out of use: buttonhold, which literally meant to hold on to the buttons or lapels of someone's coat when speaking to him or her. In the mid-19th century, English speakers altered the verb to buttonhole, perhaps as a result of hearing buttonhold as buttonholed. The overlap is apparent in an early instance of this spelling in an 1862 London publication called All Year Round: "The man who is button-holed, or held ... and must listen to half an hour's harangue about nothing interesting."

Faze

to disturb the composure of : disconcert, daunt Faze (not to be confused with phase) first appeared in English in the early 1800s—centuries after the works of Shakespeare and Chaucer were penned. But both of those authors were familiar with the word's ancient parent: faze is an alteration of the now-rare verb feeze, which has been in use since the days of Old English (in the form fēsian), when it meant "to drive away" or "to put to flight." By the 1400s, it was also being used with the meaning "to frighten or put into a state of alarm." The word is still used in some English dialects as a noun meaning "rush" or "a state of alarm or excitement."

Boycott

to engage in a concerted refusal to have dealings with (a person, a store, an organization, etc.) usually to express disapproval or to force acceptance of certain conditions In the 1870s, Irish farmers faced an agricultural crisis that threatened to result in a repeat of the terrible famine and mass evictions of the 1840s. Anticipating financial ruin, they formed a Land League to campaign against the rent increases and evictions landlords were imposing as a result of the crisis. Retired British army captain Charles Boycott had the misfortune to be acting as an agent for an absentee landlord at the time, and when he tried to evict tenant farmers for refusing to pay their rent, he was ostracized by the League and community. His laborers and servants quit, and his crops began to rot. Boycott's fate was soon well known, and his name became a byword for that particular protest strategy.

Debunk (dee-BUNK)

to expose the sham or falseness of If you guessed that debunk has something to do with bunk, meaning "nonsense," you're correct. We started using bunk around the turn of the 20th century. (It derived, via bunkum, from a remark made by a congressman from Buncombe County, North Carolina.) Within a couple of decades, debunk was first used in print for the act of taking the bunk out of something. There are plenty of synonyms for debunk, including disprove, rebut, refute, and the somewhat rarer confute. Even falsify can mean "to prove something false," in addition to "to make something false." Debunk itself often suggests that something is not merely untrue but also a sham; one can simply disprove a myth, but if it is debunked, the implication is that it was a grossly exaggerated or foolish claim.

Ingratiate (in-GRAY-shee-ayt)

to gain favor or favorable acceptance for by deliberate effort — usually used with with 17th-century English speakers combined the Latin noun gratia, meaning "grace" or "favor," with the English prefix in- to create the verb ingratiate. When you ingratiate yourself, you are putting yourself in someone's good graces to gain their approval or favor. English words related to ingratiate include gratis and gratuity. Both of these reflect something done or given as a favor through the good graces of the giver.

Quail

to give way : falter 2 : to recoil in dread or terror : cower Flinch, recoil, and wince are all synonyms of quail, but each word has a slightly different use. When you flinch, you fail to endure pain or to face something dangerous or frightening with resolution ("she faced her accusers without flinching"). Recoil implies a start or movement away from something through shock, fear, or disgust ("he recoiled at the suggestion of stealing"). Wince usually suggests a slight involuntary physical reaction to something ("she winced as the bright light suddenly hit her eyes"). Quail implies shrinking and cowering in fear ("he quailed before the apparition").

Career

to go at top speed especially in a headlong manner Chances are you're familiar with the verb careen as used in the sense of "to go forward in a headlong or uncontrolled manner." Similarly, you likely know the noun career meaning "a profession for which one trains and which is undertaken as a permanent calling." What you may not know is that the noun career (from Middle French carriere) originally referred to a course or passage (as in "the sun's career across the sky") and to the speed used to traverse such a course. In the context of medieval tournaments, career referred to the charge of mounted knights as well as to the courses they rode. Verb use eventually developed with a general "to go fast" meaning, and later the more specific sense of moving in a reckless or headlong manner. (If you're wondering, career is not etymologically related to careen; careen has nautical origins, tracing to the Latin word for "hull.")

Yuppify (YUP-uh-fye)

to make appealing to yuppies; also : to infuse with the qualities or values of yuppies Yuppie and yuppify are products of the 1980s, but they owe a debt to predecessors from decades prior. Hippie (referring to a long-haired, unconventionally dressed young person who rejects societal mores; from hip, meaning "cool") first appeared in print in the 1950s. Yippie (naming a politically active hippie; from Youth International Party) followed hippie a decade later. Gentrification and gentrify (both of which have to do with the effects of influxes of relatively affluent people into deteriorating neighborhoods; from gentry) then evolved. Yuppie (pointing out a young well-paid professional who lives and works in or near an urban area; probably from young urban professional, influenced by hippie and yippie) hit the press in the early 1980s, bringing along yuppify and yuppification (patterned after gentrify and gentrification).

Galumph

to move with a clumsy heavy tread Bump, thump, thud. There's no doubt about it—when someone or something galumphs onto the scene, ears take notice. Galumph first lumbered onto the English scene in 1872 when Lewis Carroll used the word to describe the actions of the vanquisher of the Jabberwock in Through the Looking Glass: "He left it dead, and with its head / He went galumphing back." Etymologists suspect Carroll created galumph by altering the word gallop, perhaps throwing in a pinch of triumphant for good measure (in its earliest uses, galumph did convey a sense of exultant bounding). Other 19th-century writers must have liked the sound of galumph, because they began plying it in their own prose, and it has been clumping around our language ever since.

Adduce

to offer as example, reason, or proof in discussion or analysis We won't lead you astray over the history of adduce; it is one of a plethora of familiar words that trace to the Latin root dūcere, which means "to lead." Perhaps we can induce you to deduce a few other dūcere offspring if we offer a few hints about them. One is a synonym of kidnap, one's a title for a British royal, and one's another word for decrease. There are your leads; here are the answers. They are abduct, duke, and reduce, respectively. There are also many others, including induce, which means "to persuade" or "to bring about." "a number of factors are adduced to explain the situation"

Satiate (SAY-shee-ayt)

to satisfy (a need, a desire, etc.) fully or to excess Satiate, sate, surfeit, cloy, pall, glut, and gorge all mean to fill to repletion. Satiate and sate sometimes imply only complete satisfaction but more often suggest repletion that has destroyed interest or desire, as in "Years of globe-trotting had satiated their interest in travel" and "Readers were sated with sensationalistic stories." Surfeit implies a nauseating repletion, as in "They surfeited themselves with junk food," while cloy stresses the disgust or boredom resulting from such surfeiting, "The strong scent of the flowers cloyed her." Pall emphasizes the loss of ability to stimulate interest or appetite—for example, "A life of leisure eventually began to pall." Glut implies excess in feeding or supplying, as in "a market glutted with diet books," and gorge suggests glutting to the point of bursting or choking, "They gorged themselves with chocolate."

Abridge

to shorten or condense

Reiterate (ree-IT-uh-rayt)

to state or do over again or repeatedly sometimes with wearying effect Can you guess the meaning of iterate, a less common relative of reiterate? It must mean simply "to state or do," right? Nope. Actually, iterate also means "to state or do again." It's no surprise, then, that some usage commentators have insisted that reiterate must always mean "to say or do again AND AGAIN." No such nice distinction exists in actual usage, however. Both reiterate and iterate can convey the idea of a single repetition or of many repetitions. Reiterate is the older of the two words—it first appeared in the 15th century, whereas iterate turned up in the 16th century. Both stem from the Latin verb iterare, which is itself from iterum ("again"), but reiterate took an extra step, through Latin reiterare ("to repeat").

Cerebrate (SAIR-uh-brayt)

to use the mind : think When you think of the human brain, you might think of the cerebrum, the large, fissured upper portion of the brain that is recognized as the neural control center for thought and sensory perception. In 1853, Dr. William Carpenter thought of the cerebrum when he coined "unconscious cerebration," a term describing the mental process by which people seem to do the right thing or come up with the right answer without conscious effort. People thought enough of Carpenter's coinage to use it as the basis of cerebrate, though the verb refers to active thinking rather than subconscious processing. Cerebrate, cerebrum, and the related adjective cerebral all derive from the Latin word for "brain," which is cerebrum.

Gingerly

very cautious or careful Etymologists take a gingerly approach to assigning any particular origins to this word. While it might have come from the name of the spice, there's nothing concrete to back up that idea. Another conjecture is that it's related to an Old French word, gensor, which meant "delicate." That's because in 16th century English an earlier sense of gingerly often referred to dancing or walking with dainty steps. Not till the 17th century did it change to apply to movements that were cautious in order to avoid being noisy or causing injury, and to a wary manner in handling or presenting ideas. Not too surprisingly, given its -ly ending, gingerly is also quite often correctly used as an adverb, as in "they moved gingerly on the icy pond."

Garish

(adj.) glaring; tastelessly showy or overdecorated in a vulgar or offensive way

Radiant

(adj.) shining, bright; giving forth light or energy

Bolster

(v.) to support, give a boost to; (n.) a long pillow or cushion; a supporting post

Belfry (BEL-free)

1 : a bell tower; especially : one surmounting or attached to another structure 2 : a room or framework for enclosing a bell 3 : the seat of the intellect : head Surprisingly, belfry does not come from bell, and early belfries did not contain bells at all. Belfry comes from the Middle English berfrey, a term for a wooden tower used in medieval sieges. The structure could be rolled up to a fortification wall so that warriors hidden inside could storm the battlements. Over time, the term was applied to other types of shelters and towers, many of which had bells in them. This association of berfrey with bell towers, seems to have influenced the dissimilation of the first r in berfrey to an l, and people began representing this pronunciation in writing with variants such as bellfray, belfrey, and belfry (the last of which has become the standard spelling). On a metaphorical note, someone who has "bats in the belfry" is insane or eccentric. This phrase is responsible for the use of bats for "insane" (as in "Are you completely bats?") and the occasional use of belfry for "head" ("He's not quite right in the belfry").

Liaison (LEE-uh-zahn)

1 : a binding or thickening agent used in cooking 2 a : a close bond or connection : interrelationship b : an illicit sexual relationship : affair 3 a : communication for establishing and maintaining mutual understanding and cooperation (as between parts of an armed force) b : a person who establishes and maintains communication for mutual understanding and cooperation 4 : the pronunciation of an otherwise absent consonant sound at the end of the first of two consecutive words the second of which begins with a vowel sound and follows without pause If you took French in school, you might remember that liaison is the term for the phenomenon that causes a silent consonant at the end of one word to sound like it begins the next word when that word begins with a vowel, so that a phrase like beaux arts sounds like \boh zahr\. We can thank French for the origin of the term, as well. Liaison derives from the Middle French lier, meaning "to bind or tie," and is related to our word liable. Our various English senses of liaison apply it to all kinds of bonds—from people who work to connect different groups to the kind of relationship sometimes entered into by two people who are attracted to one another.

Riposte (rih-POHST)

1 : a fencer's quick return thrust following a parry 2 : a retaliatory verbal sally : retort 3 : a retaliatory maneuver or measure In the sport of fencing, a riposte is a counterattack made after successfully fending off one's opponent. English speakers borrowed the name for this particular maneuver from French in the early 1700s, but the French had simply modified Italian risposta, which literally means "answer." Ultimately these words come from the Latin verb respondēre, meaning "to respond." It seems fitting that riposte has since come full circle to now refer to a quick and witty response performed as a form of retaliation.

Petard (puh-TAHRD)

1 : a case containing an explosive to break down a door or gate or breach a wall 2 : a firework that explodes with a loud report Aside from historical references to siege warfare, and occasional contemporary references to fireworks, petard is almost always encountered in variations of the phrase "hoist with one's own petard," meaning "victimized or hurt by one's own scheme." The phrase comes from William Shakespeare's Hamlet: "For 'tis the sport to have the enginer / Hoist with his own petar." Hoist in this case is the past participle of the verb hoise, meaning "to lift or raise," and petar(d) refers to an explosive device used in siege warfare. Hamlet uses the example of the engineer (the person who sets the explosive device) being blown into the air by his own device as a metaphor for those who schemed against him being undone by their own schemes. The phrase has endured, even if its literal meaning has largely been forgotten.

Gambit (GAM-bit)

1 : a chess opening in which a player risks one or more pawns or a minor piece to gain an advantage in position 2 a (1) : a remark intended to start a conversation or make a telling point (2) : topic b : a calculated move : stratagem In 1656, a chess handbook was published that was said to have almost a hundred illustrated gambetts. That early spelling of gambit is close to the Italian word gambetto, from which it is derived. Gambetto, which is from gamba, meaning "leg," was used for an act of tripping—especially one that gave an advantage, as in wrestling. The original chess gambit is an opening in which a bishop's pawn is sacrificed to gain some advantage, but the name is now applied to many other chess openings. After being pinned down to chess for years, gambit finally broke free of the hold and showed itself to be a legitimate contender in the English language by weighing in with other meanings.

Animadversion (an-uh-mad-VER-zhun)

1 : a critical and usually censorious remark — often used with on 2 : adverse criticism Animadversion comes ultimately from the Latin phrase animum advertere, meaning "to turn the mind to." The first part, anima, comes from the Latin word for "mind" or "soul" and gives us animal and animate. It is easy to see how we also get adverse and adversary from advertere, especially when we remember that "to turn to" easily becomes "to turn against." Other English words descended from advertere include advert, meaning "to turn the attention (to)" or "to make reference (to)," and advertise.

Cornucopia (kor-nuh-KOH-pee-uh)

1 : a curved, hollow goat's horn or similarly shaped receptacle (such as a horn-shaped basket) that is overflowing especially with fruit and vegetables (such as gourds, ears of corn, apples, and grapes) and that is used as a decorative motif emblematic of abundance 2 : an inexhaustible store : abundance 3 : a receptacle shaped like a horn or cone Cornucopia comes from Latin cornu copiae, which translates literally as "horn of plenty." A traditional staple of feasts, the cornucopia is believed to represent the horn of a goat from Greek mythology. According to legend, it was from this horn that the god Zeus was fed as an infant. Later, the horn was filled with flowers and fruits, and given as a present to Zeus. The filled horn (or a receptacle resembling it) has long served as a traditional symbol in art and decoration to suggest a store of abundance. The word first appeared in English in the early 16th century; a century later, it developed the figurative sense of an overflowing supply.

Darling

1 : a dearly loved person 2 : favorite The origins of darling can be found in the very heart of the English language, and examples of its use are found in Old English writings from the 9th century. The Old English dēorling was formed by attaching the Old English suffix -ling ("one associated with or marked by a specified quality") with the adjective dēore, the ancestor of our adjective dear ("regarded very affectionately or fondly," "highly valued or esteemed," "beloved"). English speakers appear to have developed a fondness for darling and have held on to it for well over a thousand years now. And though its spelling has changed over time—including variations such as dyrling, derlinge, and dearling—darling has maintained its original sense of "one dearly loved."

Coup de grâce

1 : a deathblow or death shot administered to end the suffering of one mortally wounded 2 : a decisive finishing blow, act, or event Borrowed directly from French and first appearing in English at the end of the 17th century, coup de grâce (also sometimes styled without the circumflex as coup de grace) translates literally as "stroke of grace" or "blow of mercy," and originally referred to a mercy killing, or to the act of putting to death a person or animal who was severely injured and unlikely to recover. (In some contexts the term is used to refer to the final act of executing a convicted criminal.) Later, coup de grâce had come to mean "an act or event that puts a definite end to something." Other coup terms that have made the jump from French to English include coup de main, for a sudden, forceful attack, and coup d'état for a violent overthrow of a government usually by a small group.

Syllogism

1 : a deductive scheme of a formal argument consisting of a major and a minor premise and a conclusion 2 : a subtle, specious, or crafty argument 3 : deductive reasoning For those trained in formal argument, the syllogism is a classical form of deduction, specifically an argument consisting of a major and a minor premise and a conclusion. One example is the inference that "kindness is praiseworthy" from the premises "every virtue is praiseworthy" and "kindness is a virtue." Syllogism came to English through Anglo-French from Latin syllogismus, which in turn can be traced back to the Greek verb syllogizesthai, meaning "to infer." In Greek logizesthai means "to calculate" and derives from logos, meaning "word" or "reckoning." Syl- comes from syn-, meaning "with" or "together."

Umbrage (UM-brij)

1 : a feeling of pique or resentment at some often fancied slight or insult 2 : shady branches : foliage 3 : shade, shadow 4 a : an indistinct indication : vague suggestion : hint b : a reason for doubt : suspicion "Deare amber lockes gave umbrage to her face." This line from a poem by William Drummond, published in 1616, uses umbrage in its original sense of "shade or shadow," a meaning shared by its Latin source, umbra. (Umbella, the diminutive form of umbra, means "a sunshade or parasol" in Latin and is an ancestor of our word umbrella.) Beginning in the early 17th century, umbrage was also used to mean "a shadowy suggestion or semblance of something," as when William Shakespeare, in Hamlet, wrote, "His semblable is his mirror, and who else would trace him, his umbrage, nothing more." In the same century, umbrage took on the pejorative senses "a shadow of suspicion cast on someone" and "displeasure, offense"; the latter is commonly used today in the phrases "give umbrage" or "take umbrage."

Handsel (HAN-sul)

1 : a gift made as a token of good wishes or luck especially at the beginning of a new year 2 : something received first (as in a day of trading) and taken to be a token of good luck 3 a : a first installment b : a token or sample of what is to come : earnest, foretaste According to an old custom in the British Isles, the first Monday of the New Year is Handsel Monday, a day to give a small gift or good luck charm to children or to those who have served you well. As long ago as the 13th century, English speakers were using the ancestor of handsel in the context of omens and luck, eventually leading to the meaning of a good luck charm given to one at the start of some new situation or condition. By the 18th century, traders were using handsel for the first cash they earned in the morning—to them, an omen of good things to follow. Nowadays, it can also be used for something that gives a taste of things to come.

Gauntlet (GAWNT-lut)

1 : a glove worn with medieval armor to protect the hand 2 : any of various protective gloves used especially in industry 3 : an open challenge (as to combat) — used in phrases like throw down the gauntlet 4 : a dress glove extending above the wrist Gauntlet comes from Middle French gantelet, the diminutive of gant, meaning "glove." (The gauntlet that means "severe trial," "ordeal," or "double file of armed men" is a different word that originates from Swedish gata, meaning "lane" or "way.") To throw down the gauntlet is to issue an open challenge, while to pick up the gauntlet is to accept an open challenge. These figurative phrases come from the conventions of medieval combat. The gauntlet was the glove of a suit of armor. To challenge someone to combat, a knight would throw his glove at another knight's feet. The second knight would take it up if he intended to accept the challenge, in which case a jousting match might ensue.

Chiliad (KILL-ee-ad)

1 : a group of 1000 2 : a period of 1000 years; especially : one reckoned from the beginning of the Christian era What's the difference between a chiliad and a millennium? Not much: both are a period of 1000 years. While millennium is more widely used, chiliad is actually older. Chiliad first appeared in the late 1500s and was originally used to mean "a group of 1000," as in "a chiliad of arrows"; millennium didn't make its way into written English until some decades later, in the early 1600s. Not surprisingly, both words trace back to roots that mean "thousand." Millennium comes from Latin mille, and chiliad is a descendant of Greek chilioi.

Weald (WEELD)

1 : a heavily wooded area : forest 2 : a wild or uncultivated usually upland region If weald were a tree, it would have many annual rings. It has been in use as a general word for "forest" since the days of Old English, and it has also long been used, in its capitalized form, as a geographic name for a once-heavily forested region of southeast England. Weald is also often capitalized today when used to refer to wooded areas like the Weald of Kent and the Weald of Sussex in England. In time, the word branched out to designate any wild and uncultivated upland regions. A related word is wold, meaning "an upland plain or stretch of rolling land."

Aggregate (AG-rih-gut)

1 : a mass or body of units or parts somewhat loosely associated with one another 2 : the whole sum or amount : sum total We added aggregate to our flock of Latin borrowings in the 15th century. It descends from aggregāre ("to cause to flock together" or "to join together"), a Latin verb made up of the prefix ad- (which means "to," and which usually changes to ag- before a g) and greg- or grex (meaning "flock, herd, or group"). Greg- also gave us congregate, gregarious, and segregate. Aggregate is commonly employed in the phrase "in the aggregate," which means "considered as a whole." Aggregate also has some specialized senses. For example, it is used to describe a mass of minerals formed into a rock, and materials like sand or gravel that are used to form concrete, mortar, or plaster.

Puntilio (punk-TILL-ee-oh)

1 : a minute detail of conduct in a ceremony or in observance of a code 2 : careful observance of forms (as in social conduct) We'll get straight to the point: there are a number of English words that come from Latin pungere, meaning "to prick" or "to sting." Punctilio is one of these words. It traces back to pungere by way of Italian puntiglio (meaning "small point," "point of honor," or "scruple"), Spanish puntillo (the diminutive of punto, meaning "point"), and Latin punctum (also meaning "point"). The adjective punctilious, meaning "marked by or concerned about precise accordance with the details of codes or conventions," is a close relative of punctilio. Do you have any guesses for other pungere derivatives? Punctuate, puncture, compunction, punctual, and pungent are some of the more common ones.

Catastrophe (kuh-TASS-truh-fee)

1 : a momentous tragic event ranging from extreme misfortune to utter overthrow or ruin 2 : utter failure : fiasco 3 a : a violent and sudden change in a feature of the earth b : a violent usually destructive natural event (such as a supernova) 4 : the final event of the dramatic action especially of a tragedy When English speakers first borrowed the Greek word katastrophē (from katastrephein, meaning "to overturn") as catastrophe in the 1500s, they used it for the conclusion or final event of a dramatic work, especially of a tragedy. In time, catastrophe came to be used more generally of any unhappy conclusion, or disastrous or ruinous end. By the mid-18th century, it was being used to denote truly devastating events, such as earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. Finally, it came to be applied to things that are only figuratively catastrophic—burnt dinners, lost luggage, really bad movies, etc.

Nidus

1 : a nest or breeding place; especially : a place or substance in an animal or plant where bacteria or other organisms lodge and multiply 2 : a place where something originates, develops, or is located Nidus literally means "nest" in Latin, and some of its relatives in English suggest this connection in a straightforward way. For example, we have nidification for the process of building a nest, and nidicolous, meaning "reared in a nest." But nidus itself, when used as an English word, is apt to refer to a place where bacteria lodge and multiply. Consequently, the extended use of nidus in English often has a negative connotation referring to a source of undesirable opinions or behaviors.

Harangue (huh-RANG)

1 : a speech addressed to a public assembly 2 : a ranting speech or writing 3 : lecture In Old Italian, the noun aringo referred to a public assembly, the verb aringare meant "to speak in public," and the noun aringa referred to a public speech. Aringa was borrowed into Middle French as arenge, and it is from this form that we get our noun harangue, which made its first appearance in English in the 16th century. Perhaps due to the bombastic or exasperated nature of some public speeches, the term quickly developed an added sense referring to a speech or writing in the style of a rant (though the word rant is not etymologically related). There is also a verb harangue, which refers to the act of making such a speech.

Silly Season

1 : a period (such as late summer) when the mass media often focus on trivial or frivolous matters for lack of major news stories 2 : a period marked by frivolous, outlandish, or illogical activity or behavior Silly season was coined in the 19th century to describe the time when journalists face a bit of a conundrum: Washington is on summer break and European governments are on vacation, but the columns of space newspapers typically devote to politics must still be filled—hence, stories about beating the heat and how celebrities are also managing to do so. The idea is comical, really, since there's always something going on somewhere. P.G. Wodehouse understood the absurdity inherent in the term when he wrote in his 1909 comic novel, The Swoop! or How Clarence Saved English, "It was inevitable, in the height of the Silly Season, that such a topic as the simultaneous invasion of Great Britain by nine foreign powers should be seized upon by the press." Inevitable indeed.

Charisma (kuh-RIZ-muh)

1 : a personal magic of leadership arousing special popular loyalty or enthusiasm for a public figure (such as a political leader) 2 : a special magnetic charm or appeal The Greek word charisma means "favor" or "gift." It is derived from the verb charizesthai ("to favor"), which in turn comes from the noun charis, meaning "grace." In English, charisma has been used in Christian contexts since the mid-1500s to refer to a gift or power bestowed upon an individual by the Holy Spirit for the good of the Church, a sense that is now very rare. The earliest nonreligious use of charisma that we know of occurred in a German text, a 1922 publication by sociologist Max Weber. The sense began appearing in English contexts shortly after Weber's work was published.

Emblem (EM-blum)

1 : a picture with a motto or set of verses intended as a moral lesson 2 : an object or the figure of an object symbolizing and suggesting another object or an idea 3 a : a symbolic object used as a heraldic device b : a device, symbol, or figure adopted and used as an identifying mark Both emblem and its synonym symbol trace back to the Greek verb bállein, meaning "to throw." Emblem arose from embállein, meaning "to insert," while symbol comes from symbállein, Greek for "to throw together." Bállein is also an ancestor of the words parable (from parabállein, "to compare"), metabolism (from metabállein, "to change"), and problem (from probállein, "to throw forward"). Another, somewhat surprising, bállein descendant is devil, which comes from Greek diabolos, literally meaning "slanderer." Diabolos in turn comes from diabállein, meaning "to throw across" or "to slander."

Hierophant (HYE-uh-ruh-fant)

1 : a priest in ancient Greece; specifically : the chief priest of the Eleusinian mysteries 2 a : a person who explains : expositor b : one who defends or maintains a cause or proposal : advocate Hierophant, hieroglyphics, and hierarch have a common root: hieros, a Greek word meaning "sacred." Hieroglyphics joins hieros with a derivative of glyphein, the Greek verb for "to carve." Hierarch, a word that can refer to a religious leader in a position of authority, joins hieros with a derivative of archein, meaning "to rule." Hierophant itself joins the root with a derivative of phainein, which means "to show." The original hierophants were priests of the ancient Greek city of Eleusis who performed sacred rites. In the 17th century, when the word was first documented in English, it referred to these priests. By the 19th century, English speakers were using the term in a broader sense. A hierophant can now be a spokesperson, a commentator, an interpreter, or a leading advocate.

Catch-22

1 : a problematic situation for which the only solution is denied by a circumstance inherent in the problem or by a rule; also : the circumstance or rule that denies a solution 2 a : an illogical, unreasonable, or senseless situation b : a measure or policy whose effect is the opposite of what was intended c : a situation presenting two equally undesirable alternatives 3 : a hidden difficulty or means of entrapment : catch Catch-22 originated as the title of a 1961 novel by Joseph Heller. (Heller had originally planned to title his novel Catch-18, but the publication of Leon Uris's Mila 18 persuaded him to change the number.) The novel's catch-22 was as follows: a combat pilot was crazy by definition (he would have to be crazy to fly combat missions) and since army regulations stipulated that insanity was justification for grounding, a pilot could avoid flight duty by simply asking, but if he asked, he was demonstrating his sanity (anyone who wanted to get out of combat must be sane) and had to keep flying. Catch-22 soon entered the language as the label for any irrational, circular, and impossible situation.

Verbiage (VER-bee-ij)

1 : a profusion of words usually of little or obscure content 2 : manner of expressing oneself in words : diction Verbiage descends from French verbier, meaning "to trill" or "to warble." The usual sense of the word implies an overabundance of possibly unnecessary words, much like the word wordiness. In other words, a writer with a fondness for verbiage might be accused of "wordiness." Some people think the phrase "excess verbiage" is redundant, but that's not necessarily true. Verbiage has a second sense meaning, simply, "wording," with no suggestion of excess. This second definition has sometimes been treated as an error by people who insist that verbiage must always imply excessiveness, but that sense is well-established and can be considered standard.

Bastion (BAS-chun)

1 : a projecting part of a fortification 2 : a fortified area or position 3 a : a place of security or survival b : a place dominated by a particular group or marked by a particular characteristic Bastion is constructed of etymological building blocks that are very similar to those of bastille (a word now used as a general term for a prison, but probably best known as the name of the Parisian fortress-turned-prison stormed by an angry mob at the start of the French Revolution). The history of bastion can be traced through Middle French to the Old Italian verb bastire, which means "to build." Bastille descends from the Old Occitan verb bastir, which also means "to build." Bastir and bastire are themselves of Germanic origin and akin to the Old High German word besten, meaning "to patch."

Nabob (NAY-bahb)

1 : a provincial governor of the Mogul empire in India 2 : a person of great wealth or prominence In India's Mogul Empire, founded in the 16th century, provincial governors carried the Urdu title of nawāb. In 1612, Captain Robert Coverte published a report of his "discovery" of "the Great Mogoll, a prince not till now knowne to our English nation." The Captain informed the English-speaking world that "An earle is called a Nawbob," thereby introducing the English version of the word. Nabob, as it thereafter came to be spelled, gained its extended sense of "a prominent person" in the 18th century, when it was applied sarcastically to British officials of the East India Company returning home after amassing great wealth in Asia. The word was perhaps most famously used by Vice President Spiro Agnew, in a 1970 speech written by William Safire, when he referred to critical members of the news media as "nattering nabobs of negativism."

Doldrum (DOHL-drumz)

1 : a spell of listlessness or despondency 2 often capitalized Doldrums : a part of the ocean near the equator abounding in calms, squalls, and light shifting winds 3 : a state or period of inactivity, stagnation, or slump Almost everyone gets the doldrums—a feeling of low spirits and lack of energy—every once in a while. The doldrums experienced by sailors, however, are usually of a different variety. In the early-19th century, the word once reserved for a feeling of despondency came to be applied to certain tropical regions of the ocean marked by the absence of strong winds. Sailing vessels, reliant on wind propulsion, struggled to make headway in these regions, leading to long, arduous journeys. The exact etymology of doldrums is not certain, though it is believed to be related to the Old English dol, meaning "foolish"—a history it shares with our adjective dull.

Fountainhead (FOUN-tun-hed)

1 : a spring that is the source of a stream 2 : principal source : origin When it first entered English in the late 16th century, fountainhead was used only in a literal sense—to refer to the source of a stream. By the 17th century, however, it was already beginning to be used figuratively in reference to any original or primary source. In his 1854 work Walden, Henry David Thoreau used the word in its figurative sense, while paying full homage to its literal meaning as well: "Morning air! If men will not drink of this at the fountainhead of the day, why, then, we must even bottle up some and sell it in the shops, for the benefit of those who have lost their subscription ticket to morning time in this world."

Martinet (mar-tuh-NET)

1 : a strict disciplinarian 2 : a person who stresses a rigid adherence to the details of forms and methods When France's King Louis XIV appointed Lieutenant Colonel Jean Martinet to be inspector general of the infantry in the late 17th century, he made a wise choice. As a drillmaster, Martinet trained his troops to advance into battle in precise linear formations and to fire in volleys only upon command, thus making the most effective use of inaccurate muskets—and making the French army one of the best on the continent. He also gave English a new word. Martinet has been used synonymously with "strict disciplinarian" since the early 18th century.

Obloquy (AH-bluh-kwee)

1 : a strongly condemnatory utterance : abusive language 2 : the condition of one that is discredited : bad repute English speakers can choose from several synonyms to name a tongue-lashing. Abuse is a good general term that usually stresses the anger of the speaker and the harshness of the language, as in "scathing verbal abuse." Vituperation often specifies fluent, sustained abuse; "a torrent of vituperation" is a typical use of this term. Invective implies vehemence comparable to vituperation but may suggest greater verbal and rhetorical skill; it may also apply especially to a public denunciation, as in "blistering political invective." Obloquy, which comes from the Late Latin ob- (meaning "against") plus loquī (meaning "to speak"), suggests defamation and consequent shame and disgrace; a typical example of its use is "subjected to obloquy and derision."

Foray (FOR-ay)

1 : a sudden or irregular invasion or attack for war or spoils : raid 2 : an initial and often tentative attempt to do something in a new or different field or area of activity Foray comes from Middle English forrayen and probably traces back to an Anglo-French word that meant "raider" or "forager." It's related to the word forage, which commonly means "to wander in search of food (or forage)." Foray, in its earliest sense, referred to a raid for plunder. Relatively recently, foray began to take on a broader meaning. In a sense, foray still refers to a trip into a foreign territory. These days, though, looting and plundering needn't be involved in a foray. When you take a foray, you dabble in an area, occupation, or pastime that's new to you.

Gest (JEST)

1 : a tale of adventures; especially : a romance in verse 2 : adventure, exploit "Let the Queen know of our gests," Antony instructs his men after a hard-won victory on the battlefield in William Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra. Great deeds and heroic acts have been the stuff of gests since medieval days; in fact, the word is more often associated with knights and heroes of old than with modern adventurers. We may not be hearing about many 21st century gests, but we do frequently encounter other relatives of the word. Gest traces to Latin gestus, the past participle of the verb gerere, which means "to wage," "to bear," or "to carry," among other things. That Latin verb gave us stoutly enduring words like gesture, ingest, jest, register, and suggest.

Taradiddle (tair-uh-DID-ul)

1 : a trivial or childish lie : fib 2 : pretentious nonsense The true origin of taradiddle is unknown, but that doesn't mean you won't encounter a lot of balderdash about its history. Some folks try to connect it to the verb diddle (one meaning of which is "to swindle or cheat"), but that connection hasn't been proven and may turn out to be poppycock. You may even hear some tommyrot about this particular sense of diddle coming from the Old English verb didrian, which meant "to deceive," but that couldn't be true unless didrian was somehow suddenly revived after eight or nine centuries of disuse. No one even knows when taradiddle was first used. It must have been before it showed up in a 1796 dictionary of colloquial speech (where it was defined as a synonym of fib), but if we claimed we knew who said it first, and when, we'd be dishing out pure applesauce.

Sensibility; Insensible

1 : ability to receive sensations : sensitiveness 2 : peculiar susceptibility to a pleasurable or painful impression (as from praise or a slight) — often used in plural 3 : awareness of and responsiveness toward something (such as emotion in another) 4 : refined or excessive sensitiveness in emotion and taste Insensible - unconscious; unresponsive From Latin sentire ("to feel"), the meanings of sensibility run the gamut from mere sensation of the sense organs to excessive sentimentality. In between is a capacity for delicate appreciation, a sense often pluralized. In Jane Austen's books, sensibility, a word much appreciated by the novelist, is mostly an admirable quality she attributed to or found lacking in her characters: "He had ... a sensibility to what was amiable and lovely" (of Mr. Elliot in Persuasion). In Sense and Sensibility, however, Austen starts out by ascribing to Marianne sensibleness, on the one hand, but an "excess of sensibility" on the other: "Her sorrows, her joys, could have no moderation ... she was everything but prudent."

Palmy (PAH-mee)

1 : marked by prosperity : flourishing 2 : abounding in or bearing palms The palm branch has traditionally been used as a symbol of victory. It is no wonder then that the word palm came to mean "victory" or "triumph" in the late 14th century, thanks to the likes of Geoffrey Chaucer. Centuries later, William Shakespeare would employ palmy as a synonym for triumphant or flourishing in the tragedy Hamlet when the character Horatio speaks of the "palmy state of Rome / A little ere the mightiest Julius fell."

Acceptation (ak-sep-TAY-shun)

1 : acceptance; especially : favorable reception or approval 2 : a generally accepted meaning of a word or understanding of a concept Acceptation is older than its synonym acceptance; it first appeared in print in the 15th century, whereas acceptance makes a 16th-century appearance. Grammarian H. W. Fowler insisted in 1926 that acceptation and acceptance were not actually synonymous (he preferred to reserve acceptation for the "accepted meaning" use), but the earliest meaning of acceptation was indeed acceptance. Both words descend from the Anglo-French word accepter ("to accept"), but acceptation took an extra step. Anglo-French added the -ation ending, which was changed to form acceptacioun in Middle English. (English embraced the present-day -ation ending later.) Acceptance simply comes from accepter plus the Anglo-French -ance.

Delate (dih-LAYT)

1 : accuse, denounce 2 : report, relate To delate someone is to "hand down" that person to a court of law. In Latin, delatus is the unlikely-looking past participle of deferre, meaning "to bring down, report, or accuse," which in turn comes from ferre, meaning "to carry." Not surprisingly, our word defer, meaning "to yield to the opinion or wishes of another," can also be traced back to deferre. At one time, in fact, defer and delate had parallel meanings (both could mean "to carry down or away" or "to offer for acceptance"), but those senses are now obsolete. Today, you are most likely to encounter delate or its relatives delation and delator in the context of medieval tribunals, although the words can also relate to modern ecclesiastical tribunals.

Myopic (mye-OH-pik)

1 : affected by myopia : of, relating to, or exhibiting myopia : nearsighted 2 : lacking in foresight or discernment : narrow in perspective and without concern for broader implications Myopia is a condition in which visual images come to a focus in front of the retina of the eye, resulting in defective vision of distant objects. Those with myopia can be referred to as "myopic" (or, less formally, "nearsighted"). Myopic has extended meanings, too. Someone myopic might have trouble seeing things from a different perspective or considering the future consequences before acting. Myopic and myopia have a lesser-known relative, myope, meaning "a myopic person." All of these words ultimately derive from the Greek myōps, which comes from myein (meaning "to be closed") and ōps (meaning "eye, face").

Spavined

1 : affected with swelling 2 : old and decrepit : over-the-hill "His horse [is] ... troubled with the lampas, infected with the fashions, full of windgalls, sped with spavins...." Petruchio's poor, decrepit horse in Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew is beset by just about every known equine malady, including a kind of swelling in the mouth (lampas), skin lesions (fashions), tumors on his fetlocks (windgalls), and bony enlargements on his hocks (spavins). The spavins alone can be enough to render a horse lame and useless. In the 17th century, "spavined" horses brought to mind other things that are obsolete, out-of-date, or long past their prime, and we began using the adjective figuratively. Spavined still serves a purpose, despite its age. It originated in Middle English as spaveyned and can be traced to the Middle French word for spavin, which was espavain.

Mien (MEEN)

1 : air or bearing especially as expressive of attitude or personality : demeanor 2 : appearance, aspect Like its synonyms bearing and demeanor, mien means the outward manifestation of personality or attitude. Bearing is the most general, but it often implies characteristic posture, as in "a woman of regal bearing." Demeanor suggests attitude expressed through outward behavior in the presence of others—for example, "the manager's professional demeanor." Mien is a somewhat literary term referring to both bearing and demeanor. "A mien of supreme self-satisfaction" is a typical use. Mien and demeanor are also linked through etymology. Mien arose through the shortening and alteration of the verb demean, which comes from the Anglo-French demener ("to conduct"), a combination of the de- prefix with mener ("to lead") that is also the root of demeanor. In this case, demean means "to conduct or behave (oneself) usually in a proper manner," not "to degrade." That other demean is a distinct word with a different etymology.

Bower (BOW-er)

1 : an attractive dwelling or retreat 2 : a lady's private apartment in a medieval hall or castle 3 : a shelter (as in a garden) made with tree boughs or vines twined together : arbor Bower derives from Old English būr, meaning "dwelling,"and was originally used of attractive homes or retreats, especially rustic cottages. In the Middle Ages, bower came to refer to a lady's personal hideaway within a medieval castle or hall—that is, her private apartment. The more familiar "arbor" sense combines the pastoral beauty of a rustic retreat with the privacy of a personal apartment. Although its tranquil modern meaning belies it, bower is distantly related to the far more roughshod bowery, which has historically been used as the name of a sleazy district in New York City. The Bowery got its name from a Dutch term for a dwelling or farm that shares a common ancestor with the terms that gave rise to "bower."

Behest (bih-HEST)

1 : an authoritative order : command 2 : an urgent prompting Today's word first appeared in Old English and was formed from the prefix be- and the verb hātan ("to command" or "to promise"). While behest was originally used only in the sense of "promise," it acquired the additional sense of "command" among speakers of Middle English. Among contemporary English speakers, behest is no longer used in the sense of "promise" but rather denotes an authoritative or urgent request or command. Old English hātan also gave English the now-archaic words hest (meaning "command") and hight ("being called or named").

Rubric (ROO-brik)

1 : an authoritative rule; especially : a rule for conduct of a liturgical service 2 : heading, title; also : class, category 3 : an explanatory or introductory commentary : gloss; specifically : an editorial interpolation 4 : an established rule, tradition, or custom 5 : a guide listing specific criteria for grading or scoring academic papers, projects, or tests Centuries ago, whenever manuscript writers inserted special instructions or explanations into a book, they put them in red ink to set them off from the black used in the main text. (They used the same practice to highlight saints' names and holy days in calendars, a practice which gave us the term red-letter day.) Ultimately, such special headings or comments came to be called rubrics, a term that traces back to ruber, the Latin word for "red." While the printing sense remains in use today, rubric also has an extended sense referring to any class or category under which something is organized.

Appellations (ap-uh-LAY-shun)

1 : an identifying name or title : designation 2 : a geographical name (as of a region, village, or vineyard) under which a winegrower is authorized to identify and market wine 3 archaic : the act of calling by a name Ask a Frenchman named Jacques his name, and you may very well get the reply, "Je m'appelle Jacques." The French verb appeler means "to call (by a name)," so Jacques' answer literally translates to "I call myself Jacques." Knowing the function of appeler makes it easy to remember that appellation refers to the name or title by which something is called or known. Appeler and appellation also share a common ancestor: Latin appellāre, meaning "to call upon, name, or designate," formed by combining the prefix ad- ("to") with another verb, pellere ("to beat against, push, or strike"). Appellāre is also the root of English's appeal (by way of Anglo-French and Middle English), as well as appellate, which is used to indicate a court where appeals are heard.

Bugbear

1 : an imaginary goblin or specter used to excite fear 2 a : an object or source of dread b : a continuing source of irritation : problem Bugbear sounds like some kind of grotesque hybrid creature from fable or folklore, and that very well may be what the word's creator was trying to evoke. When the word entered English in the 16th century, it referred to any kind of creature made up to frighten someone; in 1592, Thomas Nashe wrote of "Meere bugge-beares to scare boyes." The word's first element refers not to the familiar creatures one encounters in the garden, but to a different bug entirely: since the 15th century, bug (from Middle English bugge, meaning "hobgoblin"—that is, a mischievous goblin) has referred to a ghost or goblin. The bear in bugbear is the one still feared today, and suggests what such made-up creatures were perhaps described as resembling.

Caravansary (kair-uh-VAN-suh-ree)

1 : an inn surrounding a court in eastern countries where caravans rest at night 2 : hotel, inn In the Middle East of centuries past, caravans often lodged at caravansaries. These inns were quadrangular in form and enclosed by massive walls with small windows near the top. The central court, which was surrounded by an arcade and storerooms, was large enough to hold 300 to 400 camels. The name was formed from the word caravan and the Persian word sarāī, meaning "palace" or "inn." Caravansary can also be spelled caravanserai, and the word serai is used as a synonym for it.

Embargo (im-BAHR-goh)

1 : an order of a government prohibiting the departure of commercial ships from its ports 2 : a legal prohibition on commerce 3 : stoppage, impediment; especially : prohibition 4 : an order by a common carrier or public regulatory agency prohibiting or restricting freight transportation Embargoes may be put in place for any number of reasons. For instance, a government may place a trade embargo against another country to express its disapproval with that country's policies. But governments are not the only bodies that can place embargoes. A publisher, for example, could place an embargo on a highly anticipated book to prevent stores from selling it before its official release date. The word embargo, dating from around the year 1600, derives via Spanish embargar from Vulgar Latin imbarricare, formed from the prefix im- and the noun barra ("bar").

Aught

1 : anything 2 : all, everything "If you know aught which does behove my knowledge / Thereof to be inform'd, imprison't not / In ignorant concealment," Polixenes begs Camillo in William Shakespeare's The Winter's Tale, employing the "anything" sense of aught. Shakespeare didn't coin the pronoun aught, which has been a part of the English language since before the 12th century, but he did put it to frequent use. Writers today may be less likely to use aught than were their literary predecessors, but the pronoun does continue to turn up occasionally. Aught can also be a noun meaning "zero," and "the aughts" is heard occasionally for the decade at the beginning of a century (say, 1900-1909 or 2000-2009) in which the penultimate digit is a zero.

Idiopathic

1 : arising spontaneously or from an obscure or unknown cause : primary 2 : peculiar to the individual Idiopathic joins the combining form idio- (from Greek idios, meaning "one's own" or "private") with -pathic, a form that suggests the effects of disease. The combining form idio- is typically found in technical terms. Examples include idiographic, meaning "relating to or dealing with something concrete, individual, or unique"; idiolect, meaning "the language or speech pattern of one individual at a particular period of life"; and idiotype, meaning "the molecular structure and conformation of an antibody that confers its antigenic specificity." A more common idio- word is idiosyncrasy, which most commonly refers to an unusual way in which a person behaves or thinks, or to an unusual part or feature of something.

Mnemonic (nih-MAH-nik)

1 : assisting or intended to assist memory; also : of or relating to a technique of improving the memory 2 : of or relating to memory The word mnemonic derives from the Greek mnēmōn ("mindful"), which itself comes from the verb mimnēskesthai, meaning "to remember." (In classical mythology, Mnemosyne, the mother of the Muses, is the goddess of memory.) In addition to its adjectival use, mnemonic is also a noun meaning "a mnemonic device," and the plural form mnemonics is used in the sense of "a technique of improving the memory." As with many classical borrowings, we retained the double initial consonant, but not the pronunciation of both, since the combination doesn't occur naturally in English (pneumonia is a similar case). If this spelling strikes you as particularly fiendish to remember, keep this mnemonic in mind: although the word's pronunciation begins with an n sound, the spelling begins with an m, as in memory.

Annuity

A sequence of equal periodic payments. An ordinary annuity is one in which payments are made at the end of each time interval.

Newfangled (NOO-FANG-guld)

1 : attracted to novelty 2 : of the newest style or kind Newfangled is actually a pretty old word. It dates all the way back to the 15th century, and likely developed from the even older adjective newfangle, which probably derives from a combination of the Middle English newe, meaning new, and the Old English fangol, from a verb meaning "to take." In its earliest documented uses, newfangled described a person who was fond of new things, fashions, or ideas. Current usage indicates that newfangled is used—sometimes deprecatingly—to describe anything that is new, hip, hot, or happening, while other times it is used with irony for something—such as rock music—that might have been new at one time but is hardly new anymore.

Addlepated (AD-ul-pay-tud)

1 : being mixed up : confused 2 : eccentric In Middle English an adel eye was a putrid egg. The stench of such an egg apparently affected the minds of some witty thinkers, who hatched a comparison between the diminished, unsound quality of an adel eye (or addle egg as it came to be called in modern English) and an empty, confused head—or pate. "Your owne imagination, which was no lesse Idle, then your head was addle all that day," wrote one 17th-century wit at play with the words idle and addle. Today, addle is often found in combination with words referring to one's noggin, as in addlepated, addlebrained, and addle-headed.

Fungible (FUN-juh-bul)

1 : being of such a nature that one part or quantity may be replaced by another equal part or quantity in the satisfaction of an obligation 2 : interchangeable 3 : flexible Fungible—which derives from the Latin verb fungi, meaning "to perform" (no relation to the noun fungus and its plural fungi)—is a word that often shows up in legal and political contexts. Something fungible can be exchanged for something else of the same kind. For example, when we say "oil is a fungible commodity," we mean that when a purchaser is expecting a delivery of oil, any oil of the stipulated quantity and quality will usually do. Another example of something fungible is cash. It doesn't matter what twenty dollar bill you get—it's still worth the same amount as any other twenty dollar bill. In contrast, something like a work of art isn't fungible; a purchaser would expect a specific, identifiable item to be delivered. In broader use, fungible can mean "interchangeable," or sometimes "readily changeable to adapt to new situations."

Nondescript (nahn-dih-SKRIPT)

1 : belonging or appearing to belong to no particular class or kind : not easily described 2 : lacking distinctive or interesting qualities : dull, drab It is relatively easy to describe the origins of nondescript (and there's a hint in the first part of this sentence). Nondescript was formed by combining the prefix non- (meaning "not") with descriptus,the past participle of the Latin verb describere, meaning "to describe." It is no surprise, then, that when the word was adopted in the late 17th century by English speakers, it was typically applied to something (such as a genus or species) that had not yet been described. Other descriptive descendants of describere in English include describe, description, and descriptive itself, as well as the rare philosophical term descriptum ("something that is described").

Mordant

1 : biting and caustic in thought, manner, or style : incisive 2 : acting as a mordant [a substance, typically an inorganic oxide, that combines with a dye or stain and thereby fixes it in a material.] (as in dyeing) mordant (verb) · mordants (third person present) · mordanted (past tense) · mordanted (past participle) · mordanting (present participle) impregnate or treat (a fabric) with a mordant. 3 : burning, pungent The etymology of mordant certainly has some bite to it. That word, which came to modern English through Middle French, ultimately derives from the Latin verb mordēre, which means "to bite." In modern parlance, mordant usually suggests a wit that is used with deadly effectiveness. Mordēre puts the bite into other English terms, too. For instance, that root gave us the tasty morsel ("a tiny bite"). But nibble too many of those and you'll likely be hit by another mordēre derivative: remorse ("guilt for past wrongs"), which comes from Latin remordēre, meaning "to bite again."

Chockablock (CHAH-kuh-blahk)

1 : brought close together 2 : very full Chockablock started out as a nautical term. A block is a metal or wooden case with one or more pulleys inside. Sometimes, two or more blocks are used as part of a rope and pulley system called a "block and tackle" to provide a mechanical advantage—as, for example, when hoisting a sail on a traditional sailing ship. When the rope is pulled as far as it will go, the blocks are tight together and are said to be chockablock. Non-nautical types associated the chock in chockablock with chock-full, which goes back to Middle English chokkefull, meaning "full to the limit" (a figurative use of "full to choking"). We thus gave chockablock the additional meaning "filled up." Chockablock can also be an adverb meaning "as close or as completely as possible," as in "families living chockablock" or the seemingly redundant "chockablock full."

Halcyon (HAL-see-un)

1 : calm, peaceful 2 : happy, golden 3 : prosperous, affluent According to Greek mythology, Alkyone, the daughter of the god of the winds, became so distraught when she learned that her husband had been killed in a shipwreck that she threw herself into the sea and was changed into a kingfisher. As a result, ancient Greeks called such birds alkyōn or halkyōn. The legend also says that such birds built floating nests on the sea, where they so charmed the wind god that he created a period of unusual calm that lasted until the birds' eggs hatched. This legend prompted people to use halcyon both as a noun naming a genus of kingfisher and as an adjective meaning either "of or relating to the kingfisher or its nesting period" or "calm."

Astringent

Bitter or acidic; substance that shrinks tissues and checks flow of blood; sharp or severe in manner or style

Tractable

1 : capable of being easily led, taught, or controlled : docile 2 : easily handled, managed, or wrought : malleable Docile, obedient, and amenable are synonyms of tractable, but those four words have slightly different shades of meaning. Tractable describes an individual whose character permits easy handling, while docile implies a predisposition to submit readily to authority. Obedient is often used to describe compliance with authority, although that compliance is not necessarily offered eagerly. Amenable, on the other hand, is usually used when someone cooperates out of a desire to be agreeable. Tractable dates from the early 16th century and derives from the Latin verb tractare ("to handle" or "to treat"). Despite the resemblance, this root did not give us the noun tractor or verbs such as contract or attract—those all derive from a loosely related Latin verb trahere ("to draw or pull").

Caustic (KAWSS-tik)

1 : capable of destroying or eating away by chemical action : corrosive 2 : marked by incisive sarcasm 3 : relating to or being the surface or curve of a caustic If you have a burning desire to know the origins of caustic, you're already well on the way to figuring it out. Caustic was borrowed into English in the 14th century from the Latin causticus, which itself derives from the Greek kaustikos. Kaustikos, in turn, comes from the Greek verb kaiein, meaning "to burn." Other kaiein descendants in English include cautery and cauterize, causalgia (a burning pain caused by nerve damage), and encaustic (a kind of paint that is heated after it's applied).

Fissile (FISS-ul)

1 : capable of or prone to being split or divided in the direction of the grain or along natural planes of cleavage 2 : capable of undergoing fission When scientists first used fissile back in the 1600s, the notion of splitting the nucleus of an atom would have seemed far-fetched indeed. In those days, people thought that atoms were the smallest particles of matter that existed and therefore could not be split. Fissile (which can be traced back to Latin findere, meaning "to split" or "to cleave") was used in reference to things like rocks. When we hear about fissile materials today, the reference is usually to nuclear fission: the splitting of an atomic nucleus that releases a huge amount of energy. But there is still a place in our language for the original sense of fissile (and for the noun fissility, meaning "the quality of being fissile"). A geologist, for example, might refer to slate as being fissile.

Grandiose (gran-dee-OHSS)

1 : characterized by affectation of grandeur or splendor or by absurd exaggeration 2 : impressive because of uncommon largeness, scope, effect, or grandeur Grandiose, magnificent, imposing, stately, majestic, and grand all can mean very large and impressive. Grand adds to greatness of size the implications of handsomeness and dignity, as in "a grand staircase." Magnificent implies an extreme and impressive largeness without sacrifice of dignity or good taste ("magnificent paintings"). Imposing implies great size and dignity but especially stresses impressiveness ("an imposing edifice"). Stately may suggest poised dignity, erectness of bearing, handsomeness of proportions, and ceremonious deliberation of movement ("the stately procession"). Majestic combines the implications of imposing and stately and usually adds a suggestion of solemn grandeur ("a majestic waterfall"). Grandiose implies a size or scope exceeding ordinary experience ("grandiose hydroelectric projects").

Gnomic (NOH-mik)

1 : characterized by aphorism 2 : given to the composition of aphoristic writing A gnome is an aphorism—that is, an observation or sentiment reduced to the form of a saying. Gnomes are sometimes couched in metaphorical or figurative language, they are often quite clever, and they are always concise. We borrowed the word gnome in the 16th century from the Greeks, who based their gnome on the verb gignōskein, meaning "to know." (The other gnome—referring to the dwarf of folklore—comes from New Latin and is unrelated to the aphoristic gnome.) We began using gnomic, the adjective form of gnome, in the late 18th century. It describes a style of writing, or sometimes speech, characterized by pithy phrases, which are often terse to the point of mysteriousness.

Two-bit (TOO-BIT)

1 : cheap or trivial of its kind : petty, small-time 2 : of the value of two bits The money-related definition of two-bit makes its etymology obvious: it is derived from the noun phrase two bits. However, two bits is an interesting phrase because it actually means "the value of a quarter of a dollar." There is no such thing as a single bit, at least not anymore. The now-obsolete Spanish dollar (also known as a peso or piece of eight) was composed of eight reales, or eight bits, so a quarter of the dollar equaled two bits. The phrase two bits carried over into U.S. usage. It first appeared in print in English in the early 1700s (and later developed the figurative sense of "something of small worth or importance"), and was followed by its adjectival relative sometime around the beginning of the 19th century. These days, the adjective has far surpassed the noun in popularity.

Maunder (MAWN-der)

1 : chiefly British : grumble 2 : to wander slowly and idly 3 : to speak indistinctly or disconnectedly Maunder looks a lot like meander, and that's not all the two words have in common—both mean "to wander aimlessly," either physically or in speech. Some critics have suggested that while meander can describe a person's verbal and physical rambling, in addition to the wanderings of things like paths and streams, maunder should be limited to wandering words. The problem with that reasoning is that maunder has been used of the physical movements of people since the 18th century, whereas meander didn't acquire that use until the 19th. These days, meander tends to be the more common choice, although maunder does continue to turn up in both applications.

Approbation/ Disapprobation (ap-ruh-BAY-shun)

1 : commendation, praise 2 : an act of approving formally or officially Approbation is similar in meaning to approval, and it is also very close to approval etymologically. Both words trace back to the Latin verb approbare, which means "to prove" or "to approve." Approbation meant "proof" when it first appeared in English in the 14th century, and by the early 1500s it had come to mean "formal or official approval," a sense it still retains in certain ecclesiastical contexts. Today, however, we mostly use approbation in the looser sense of "approval, admiration, or praise." The related verb approbate means "to approve or sanction," and the adjective approbatory means "expressing approval or commendation." Disapprobation means exactly the opposite: disapproval; condemnation

Cohort

1 : companion, colleague 2 a : band, group b : a group of individuals having a statistical factor (such as age or class membership) in common in a demographic study c : one of 10 divisions of an ancient Roman legion d : a group of warriors or soldiers In ancient times, a cohort was a military unit, one of ten divisions in a Roman legion. The term passed into English in the 15th century, when it was used in translations and writings about Roman history. Once cohort became established in our language, its meaning was extended, first to refer to any body of troops, then to any group of individuals with something in common, and later to a single companion. Some usage commentators have objected to this last sense because it can be hard to tell whether the plural refers to different individuals or different groups. The "companion" sense is well established in standard use, however, and its meaning is clear enough in such sentences as "her cohorts came along with her to the game."

Plenary (PLEN-uh-ree)

1 : complete in every respect : absolute, unqualified 2 : fully attended or constituted by all entitled to be present In the 14th century, the monk Robert of Brunne described a situation in which all the knights of King Arthur's Round Table were present at court by writing, "When Arthures court was plener, and alle were comen, fer and ner...." For many years, plener (also spelled plenar) served English well for both senses that we reserve for plenary today. But we'd borrowed plener from Anglo-French, and, although the French had relied on Latin plenus ("full") for their word, the revival of interest in the Classics during the English Renaissance led scholars to prefer purer Latin origins. In the 15th century, English speakers turned to Late Latin plenarius and came up with plenary. (Plenarius also comes from plenus, which is the source of our plenty and replenish as well.)

Eclectic (ih-KLEK-tik)

1 : composed of elements drawn from various sources; also : heterogeneous 2 : selecting what appears to be best in various doctrines, methods, or styles Eclectic comes from the Greek eklektikos (meaning "selective"), from the verb eklegein, "to select." Eclectic was originally applied to ancient philosophers who were not committed to any single system of philosophy but instead selected whichever doctrines pleased them from every school of thought. Later, the word's use broadened to cover other selective natures. "Hard by, the central slab is thick with books / Diverse, but which the true eclectic mind / Knows how to group, and gather out of each / Their frequent wisdoms...." In this 19th century example from a poem by Arthur Joseph Munby, for example, the word is applied to literature lovers who cull selective works from libraries.

Pecuniary (pih-KYOO-nee-air-ee)

1 : consisting of or measured in money 2 : of or relating to money Pecuniary first appeared in English in the early 16th century and comes from the Latin word pecunia, which means "money." Both this root and Latin peculium, which means "private property," are related to the Latin noun for cattle, pecus. Among Latin speakers (as among many other populations, past and present) cattle were viewed as a trading commodity, and property was often valued in terms of cattle. Pecunia has also given us impecunious, a word meaning "having little or no money," while peculium gave us peculate, a synonym for embezzle. In peculium you might also recognize the word peculiar, which originally meant "characteristic of only one" or "distinctive" before acquiring its current meaning of "strange."

Continual (kun-TIN-yoo-ul)

1 : continuing indefinitely in time without interruption 2 : recurring in steady usually rapid succession Since the mid-19th century, many grammarians have drawn a distinction between continual and continuous. Continual should only mean "occurring at regular intervals," they insist, whereas continuous should be used to mean "continuing without interruption." This distinction overlooks the fact that continual is the older word and was used with both meanings for centuries before continuous appeared on the scene. Today, continual is the more likely of the two to mean "recurring," but it also continues to be used, as it has been since the 14th century, with the meaning "continuing without interruption."

Belated (bih-LAY-tud)

1 : delayed beyond the usual time 2 : existing or appearing past the normal or proper time Long ago, there was a verb belate, which meant "to make late." From the beginning, belate tended to mostly turn up in the form of its past participle, belated. Eventually, belate itself fell out of use, leaving behind belated as an adjective that preserved the original notion of delay. As you may have guessed, belate and its descendant belated derive from the adjective late; belate was formed by simply combining the prefix be- ("to cause to be") with late. Belated was also once used in the sense "overtaken by night," as in "belated travelers seeking lodging for the night." This sense was in fact the first meaning of the adjective, but it has since fallen into disuse.

Recondite

1 : difficult or impossible for one of ordinary understanding or knowledge to comprehend : deep 2 : of, relating to, or dealing with something little known or obscure 3 : hidden from sight : concealed While the adjective recondite may be used to describe something difficult to understand, there is nothing recondite about the word's history. It dates to the early 1600s, when it was coined from the synonymous Latin word reconditus. Recondite is one of those underused but useful words that's always a boon to one's vocabulary, but take off the re- and you get something very obscure: condite is an obsolete verb meaning both "to pickle or preserve" and "to embalm." If we add the prefix in- to condite we get incondite, which means "badly put together," as in "incondite prose." All three words have Latin condere at their root; that verb is translated variously as "to put or bring together," "to put up, store," and "to conceal."

Provender (PRAH-vun-der)

1 : dry food for domestic animals : feed 2 : food, victuals When English speakers first chewed on the word provender around 1300, it referred to a stipend (also known as a prebend) that a clergyman received from his cathedral or collegiate church. Within a half a century, the word's current meanings had developed. These days you're most likely to encounter provender in articles written by food and travel writers. A few such writers confuse provender with purveyor, meaning "a person or business that sells or provides something," but most of them keep the words straight, as Deidre Schipani does in this quote from the Post and Courier, of Charleston, South Carolina: "The kitchen remains true to its local roots. Buying from island farmers, fisherman, shrimpers, butchers and small local artisans keeps the provender and purveyors in alignment."

Solstice (SAHL-stiss)

1 : either of the two points on the ecliptic at which its distance from the celestial equator is greatest 2 : the time of the sun's passing one such point on the ecliptic which occurs about June 21 to begin summer in the northern hemisphere and about December 21 to begin winter in the northern hemisphere In the Northern Hemisphere, the summer solstice usually occurs on June 20 or 21 and the winter solstice on December 21 or 22. In the Southern Hemisphere, where the seasons are reversed, the solstices are exactly the opposite. For several days around the time of the solstices, the sun's appearance on the horizon at sunrise and sunset seems to occur at the same spot, before it starts drifting to the north or south again. Solstice gets its shine from sol, the Latin word for "sun." The ancients added sol to -stit- (a participial stem of sistere, which means "to stand still") and came up with solstitium. Middle English speakers shortened solstitium to solstice in the 14th century.

Tergiversation (ter-jiv-er-SAY-shun)

1 : evasion of straightforward action or clear-cut statement : equivocation 2 : desertion of a cause, position, party, or faith The roots of tergiversation are about an unwillingness to pick a course and stay on it. The Latin verb tergiversari means "to show reluctance," and it comes from the combining of tergum, meaning "back," and versare, meaning "to turn." (While versare and its related form, vertere, turn up in the etymologies of many English words, including versatile and invert, tergum is at the root of only a few, among them tergal, an obscure synonym of dorsal.) While the "desertion" meaning of tergiversation is both older and a better reflection of the meanings of its etyma, the word is more frequently used as a synonym of equivocation. The related verb tergiversate is a somewhat rare synonym of equivocate.

Paradigm

1 : example, pattern; especially : an outstandingly clear or typical example or archetype 2 : an example of a conjugation or declension showing a word in all its inflectional forms 3 : a philosophical and theoretical framework of a scientific school or discipline within which theories, laws, and generalizations and the experiments performed in support of them are formulated; broadly : a philosophical or theoretical framework of any kind Paradigm traces to a Greek verb meaning "to show," and has been used in English to mean "example" or "pattern" since the 15th century. Some debate exists, however, about what kind of example qualifies as a paradigm. Some people say it's a typical example, while others insist it must be an outstanding or perfect example. The scientific community has added to the confusion by using it to mean "a theoretical framework," a sense popularized by American scientist Thomas S. Kuhn in the second edition of his influential book The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, published in 1970. In that work, Kuhn admitted that he had used paradigm in 22 different ways. Some usage commentators now advise avoiding the term entirely on the grounds that it is overused.

Parsimonious (par-suh-MOH-nee-us)

1 : exhibiting or marked by thrift or economy; especially : frugal to the point of stinginess 2 : sparing, restrained English isn't stingy when it comes to synonyms of parsimonious. Stingy, close, penurious, and miserly are a few terms that, like parsimonious, suggest an unwillingness to share with others. Stingy implies a marked lack of generosity, whereas close suggests keeping a tight grip on one's money and possessions. Penurious implies frugality that gives an appearance of actual poverty, and miserly suggests avariciousness and a morbid pleasure in hoarding. Parsimonious usually suggests an extreme frugality that borders on stinginess.

Preternatural

1 : existing outside of nature 2 : exceeding what is natural or regular : extraordinary 3 : inexplicable by ordinary means; especially : psychic Preternatural derives from the Latin phrase praeter naturam, which means "beyond nature." Medieval Latin scholars rendered the term as praeternaturalis, and that form inspired the modern English version. Unusual things are sometimes considered positive and sometimes negative, and throughout its history preternatural has been used to refer to both exceptionally good things and unnaturally evil ones. In its earliest documented uses in the 1500s, it tended to emphasize the strange, ominous, or foreboding, but by the 1700s, people were using it more benignly to refer to fascinating supernatural (or even heavenly) phenomena. Nowadays, people regularly use it to describe the remarkable abilities of exceptional humans.

Vicarious

1 : experienced or realized through imaginative or sympathetic participation in the experience of another 2 a : serving instead of someone or something else b : that has been delegated 3 : performed or suffered by one person as a substitute for another or to the benefit or advantage of another : substitutionary 4 : occurring in an unexpected or abnormal part of the body instead of the usual one If you act in someone's stead, you take his or her place, at least temporarily. The oldest meaning of vicarious, which dates to the first half of the 1600s, is "serving instead of someone or something else." The word vicarious derives from the Latin noun vicis, which means "change," "alternation," or "stead." Vicis is also the source of the English prefix vice- (as in "vice president"), meaning "one that takes the place of."

Flotsam (FLAHT-sum)

1 : floating wreckage of a ship or its cargo; broadly : floating debris 2 a : a floating population (as of emigrants or castaways) b : miscellaneous or unimportant material c : debris, remains English speakers started using flotsam, jetsam, and lagan as legal terms in the 16th and 17th centuries (the earliest evidence of flotsam dates from around the early 1600s). The three words were used to establish claims of ownership to the three types of seaborne, vessel-originated goods they named. Flotsam was anything from a shipwreck (the word comes from Old French floter, meaning "to float"). Jetsam and lagan were items thrown overboard to lighten a ship. Lagan was distinguished from jetsam by having a buoy attached so the goods could be found if they sank. In the 19th century, when flotsam and jetsam took on extended meanings, they became synonyms, but they are still very often paired.

Fecund (FEK-und)

1 : fruitful in offspring or vegetation : prolific 2 : intellectually productive or inventive to a marked degree Fecund and its synonyms fruitful and fertile all mean producing or capable of producing offspring or fruit, literally or figuratively. Fecund applies to things that yield offspring, fruit, or results in abundance or with rapidity ("a fecund herd," "a fecund imagination"). Fruitful emphasizes abundance, too, and often adds the implication that the results attained are desirable or useful ("fruitful plains," "a fruitful discussion"). Fertile implies the power to reproduce ("a fertile egg") or the power to assist in reproduction, growth, or development ("fertile soil," "a fertile climate for artists").

Fraught

1 : full of or accompanied by something specified — used with with 2 : causing or characterized by emotional distress or tension : uneasy "The drowmound was so hevy fraught / That unethe myght it saylen aught." That verse, from the 14th-century poem Richard Coer de Lion, says that a large ship (a dromond) was so heavily loaded that it could barely sail: originally, something that was "fraught" was laden with freight. Fraught came to Middle English from the Middle Dutch or Middle Low German noun vracht, which meant "load" and which is also the source of freight. For centuries, fraught continued to be used of loaded ships, but its use was eventually broadened for situations that are heavy with tension or some other weighty characteristic.

Hirsute (HER-soot)

1 : hairy 2 : covered with coarse stiff hairs Hirsute has nearly the same spelling and exactly the same meaning as its Latin parent, hirsutus. The word isn't quite one of a kind, though—it has four close relatives: hirsutism and hirsuties, synonymous nouns naming a medical condition involving excessive hair growth; hirsutal, an adjective meaning "of or relating to hair"; and hirsutulous, a mostly botanical term meaning "slightly hairy" (as in "hirsutulous stems"). The Latin hirsutus is also an etymological cousin to horrēre, meaning "to bristle." Horrēre gave rise to Latin horrōr-, horror, which has the various meanings of "standing stiffly," "bristling," "shivering," "dread," "consternation," and is the source, via Anglo-French, of our word horror. The word horripilation—a fancy word for goose bumps—is also a hirsute relation; its Latin source, horripilāre, means "to shudder," and was formed from horrēre and pilus ("hair").

Ruddy (RUDD-ee)

1 : having a healthy reddish color 2 : red, reddish 3 British — used as an intensive In Old English, there were two related words referring to red coloring: rēad and rudu. Rēad evolved into our present-day red. Rudu evolved into rud (a word now encountered only in dialect or archaic usage) and ruddy. Most often, ruddy is applied to the face when it has the red glow of good health or is red from a suffusion of blood from exercise or excitement. It is also used in the names of some birds, such as the American ruddy duck. In British English, ruddy is also used as a colorful euphemism for the sometimes offensive intensive bloody, as 20th-century English writer Sir Kingsley Amis illustrates in The Riverside Villas Murder: "Ruddy marvelous, the way these coppers' minds work.... I take a swing at Chris Inman in public means I probably done him in."

Plangent (PLAN-junt)

1 : having a loud reverberating sound 2 : having an expressive and especially plaintive quality Plangent adds power to our poetry and prose: the pounding of waves, the beat of wings, the tolling of a bell, the throbbing of the human heart, a lover's knocking at the door—all have been described as plangent. The word plangent traces back to the Latin verb plangere, which has two meanings. The first of those meanings, "to strike or beat," was sometimes used by Latin speakers in reference to striking one's breast in grief. This, in turn, led to the verb's second meaning: "to lament." The sense division carried over to the Latin adjective plangens and then into English, giving us the two distinct meanings of plangent: "pounding" and "expressive of melancholy."

Mellifluous (muh-LIFF-luh-wus)

1 : having a smooth rich flow 2 : filled with something (such as honey) that sweetens In Latin, mel means "honey" and fluere means "to flow." Those two linguistic components flow smoothly together in mellifluus (from Late Latin) and mellyfluous (from Middle English), the ancestors of mellifluous. The adjective these days typically applies to sound, as it has for centuries. In 1671, for example, poet John Milton wrote in Paradise Regained of the "Wisest of men; from whose mouth issu'd forth Mellifluous streams." But mellifluous can also be used of flavor, as when wine critics Eric Asimov and Florence Fabricant used it to describe pinot grigio in the 2014 book Wine With Food: "Most pinot grigios give many people exactly what they want: a mellifluous, easy-to-pronounce wine that can be ordered without fear of embarrassment and that is at the least cold, refreshing, and for the most part cheap."

Macabre (muh-KAHB)

1 : having death as a subject : comprising or including a personalized representation of death 2 : dwelling on the gruesome 3 : tending to produce horror in a beholder We trace the origins of macabre to the name of the Book of Maccabees, which is included in the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox canons of the Old Testament and in the Protestant Apocrypha. Sections of this biblical text address both the deaths of faithful people asked to renounce their religion and the manner in which the dead should be properly commemorated. In medieval France, representations of these passages were performed as what became known as the "dance of death" or "dance Maccabee," which was spelled in several different ways, including danse macabre. In English, macabre was originally used in reference to this "dance of death" and then gradually came to refer to anything grim or gruesome.

Substantive (SUB-stun-tiv)

1 : having substance : involving matters of major or practical importance to all concerned 2 : considerable in amount or numbers : substantial 3 a : real rather than apparent : firm; also : permanent, enduring b : belonging to the substance of a thing : essential c : expressing existence 4 a : having the nature or function of a noun b : relating to or having the character of a noun or pronominal term in logic 5 : creating and defining rights and duties Substantive was borrowed into Middle English from the Anglo-French adjective sustentif, meaning "having or expressing substance," and can be traced back to the Latin verb substare, which literally means "to stand under." Figuratively, the meaning of substare is best understood as "to stand firm" or "to hold out." Since the 14th century, we have used substantive to speak of that which is of enough "substance" to stand alone, or be independent. By the 19th century, the word evolved related meanings, such as "enduring" and "essential." It also shares some senses with substantial, such as "considerable in quantity."

Chapfallen (CHAP-faw-lun)

1 : having the lower jaw hanging loosely 2 : cast down in spirit : depressed A variant spelling of the adjective chapfallen is chopfallen, a spelling that may help us to better understand this somewhat unusual word. The chap in chapfallen is a word that dates back to at least the 16th century. It refers to the fleshy covering of the jaw or to the jaw itself and is often used in the plural, as in "the wolf licked its chaps." If that phrase doesn't seem quite right to you, it is likely because you are more familiar with chops, an alteration of chaps, which is also used to refer to the jaw or the mouth. Fallen is the past participle of fall. Thus, to be chapfallen or chopfallen is, literally, to have one's jaw in a fallen or lower position, which is a physical sign of dejection.

Pell-mell

1 : in mingled confusion or disorder 2 : in confused haste The word pell-mell was probably formed through a process called reduplication. The process—which involves the repetition of a word or part of a word, often including a slight change in its pronunciation—also generated such terms as bowwow, helter-skelter [disorder; confusion], flip-flop, and chitchat. Yet another product of reduplication is shilly-shally, which started out as a single-word compression of the question "Shall I?" For pell-mell, the process is believed to have occurred long ago: our word traces to a Middle French [Middle French (French: moyen français) is a historical division of the French language that covers the period from the 14th to the 16th century] word of the same meaning, pelemele, which was likely a product of reduplication from Old French [Old French (franceis, françois, romanz; Modern French: ancien français) was the language spoken in Northern France from the 8th century to the 14th century.] mesle, a form of mesler, meaning "to mix."

Clement (KLEM-unt)

1 : inclined to be merciful : lenient 2 : not severe : mild Defendants in court cases probably don't spend much time worrying about inclement weather. They're too busy hoping to meet a clement judge so they will be granted clemency. They should hope they don't meet an inclement judge! Clement, inclement, and clemency all derive from the Latin clemens, which means "mild" or "calm." All three terms can refer to an individual's degree of mercy or to the relative pleasantness of the weather.

Reticent (RET-uh-sunt)

1 : inclined to be silent or uncommunicative in speech : reserved 2 : restrained in expression, presentation, or appearance 3 : reluctant Reticent in the sense of "inclined to be silent or uncommunicative" first appeared in English in the early 19th century. About 50 years later, reticent took on the additional sense of "reluctant" which, while it is now well established, bothers some people, particularly because it has veered away from the word's Latin origins—reticent is from the verb reticēre, meaning "to keep silent." But there is some sense in the way the newer meaning developed. We first tended to use the "reluctant" sense of reticent when the context was speech (as in "reticent to talk about her past"), thus keeping the word close to its "silent" sense. Eventually, however, exclusive association with speech was abandoned. Now one can be reticent to do anything.

Ephemeral (ih-FEM-uh-rul)

1 : lasting a very short time 2 : lasting one day only The mayfly (order Ephemeroptera) typically hatches, matures, mates, and dies within the span of a few short hours (though the longest-lived may survive a record two days); poets sometimes use this insect to symbolize life's ephemeral nature. When ephemeral (from the Greek word ephēmeros, meaning "lasting a day") first appeared in print in English in the late 16th century, it was a scientific term applied to short-term fevers, and later, to organisms (such as insects and flowers) with very short life spans. Soon after that, it acquired an extended sense referring to anything fleeting and short-lived, as in "ephemeral pleasures."

Largesse

1 : liberal giving (as of money) to or as if to an inferior; also : something so given 2 : generosity The word largesse, which also can be spelled largess, has been part of the English language since at least the 13th century. It derives via Anglo-French from the Latin word largus, meaning "abundant" or "generous." Largus is also the source of our word large. As far back as the 14th century, we used the word largeness as a synonym of largesse (meaning "liberal giving"), but largeness was also at that same time being used more frequently as it is now: to refer to physical magnitude and bulk rather than to magnanimity.

Loon (LOON)

1 : lout, idler 2 chiefly Scotland : boy 3 a : a crazy person b : simpleton There are a number of theories about the origin of loon as it refers to a crazy person, its most common current meaning. One is that it comes from loony, meaning "crazy." But based on currently available evidence, loony is a late 19th-century alteration of lunatic that didn't come into use until decades after the meaning of loon in question. (It's still possible that loony influenced the development and spread of this meaning of loon.) Another guess is that this loon is from the avian loon, inspired either by the bird's maniacal cry or its displays to distract predators, such as skittering over water with its neck crooked. This is certainly possible, and is the origin story favored by some. But the story our dictionaries favor is a bit more quotidian: the current use of loon developed from earlier uses, primarily in Scottish and other northern dialects of British English, of loon to refer to a lout (an awkward, brutish person) or idler (someone who is idle, lazy, or inactive). While that loon, which is from Middle English loun, never spread to British English more broadly, immigrants from the regions where it was used had a significant influence on American English, and it's not far-fetched to posit that their loon developed into the distinctly American use of the word to refer to daffy people.

Impromptu

1 : made, done, or formed on or as if on the spur of the moment : improvised 2 : composed or uttered without previous preparation : extemporaneous If you think that impromptu looks like a relative of the adjective prompt, you're right; both are ultimately derived from the Latin promere, meaning "to bring forth, take out." Impromptu was borrowed from French, where it meant "extemporaneously," but French speakers picked it up from the Latin phrase in promptu, a promere descendant meaning "in readiness" or "at hand." Something that is impromptu is generally "prompted" (that English verb is from Latin promptus, of the same meaning) by an occasion that generates a response in the form of, for example, a party or a speech that has not been planned. There is also another, much rarer descendant of promere in English: the noun promptuary, meaning "a book of ready reference."

Tortuous (TOR-chuh-wus)

1 : marked by repeated twists, bends, or turns : winding 2 a : marked by devious or indirect tactics : crooked, tricky b : circuitous, involved Be careful not to confuse tortuous with torturous. These two words are relatives—both ultimately come from the Latin verb torquere, which means "to twist," "to wind," or "to wrench"—but tortuous means "winding" or "crooked," whereas torturous means "painfully unpleasant." Something tortuous (such as a twisting mountain road) might also be torturous (if, for example, you have to ride up that road on a bicycle), but that doesn't make these words synonyms. The twists and turns that mark a tortuous thing can be literal ("a tortuous path" or "a tortuous river") or figurative ("a tortuous argument" or "a tortuous explanation"), but you should consider choosing a different descriptive term if no implication of winding or crookedness is present.

Dexterous

1 : mentally adroit and skillful : clever 2 : done with mental or physical skill, quickness, or grace : done with dexterity : artful 3 : skillful and competent with the hands Dexterous comes from the Latin word dexter, meaning "on the right side." Since most people are right-handed, and therefore do things more easily with their right hand, dexter developed the sense of "skillful." English speakers crafted dexterous from dexter and have been using the resulting adjective for anyone who is skillful—in either a physical or mental capacity—since at least the early 1600s. The adjective ambidextrous, which combines dexter with the Latin prefix ambi-, meaning "both," describes one who is able to use both hands in an equally skillful way.

Chivalry (SHIV-ul-ree)

1 : mounted men-at-arms 2 : gallant or distinguished gentlemen 3 : the system, spirit, or customs of medieval knighthood 4 : the qualities of the ideal knight : chivalrous conduct In days of old when knights were bold, Anglo-French speakers used the word chevaler (an ancestor of our word chevalier) for a knight or horseman. By the 14th century, English speakers had adopted the slightly modified spelling chivalry to describe their own well-armored, mounted warriors. Nowadays, when we say that chivalry is not dead, we are alluding to the high standard of character and conduct typically associated with gallant knights. If you trace chevaler back to Late Latin, you'll find that it derives from caballarius, which is also the ancestor of another term for a daring medieval gentleman-at-arms: cavalier.

Lugubrious (loo-GOO-bree-us)

1 : mournful; especially : exaggeratedly or affectedly mournful 2 : dismal "It is a consolation to the wretched to have companions in misery," wrote Publilius Syrus in the first century B.C.E. Perhaps this explains why lugubrious is so woeful—it's all alone. Sure, we can dress up lugubrious with suffixes to form lugubriously or lugubriousness, but the word remains essentially an only child—the sole surviving English offspring of its Latin ancestors. This wasn't always the case, though. Lugubrious once had a linguistic living relative in luctual, an adjective meaning sad or sorrowful. Like lugubrious, luctual traced ultimately to the Latin verb lugēre, meaning "to mourn." Luctual, however, faded into obsolescence long ago, leaving lugubrious to carry on the family's mournful mission all alone.

Penultimate (pih-NUL-tuh-mut)

1 : next to the last 2 : of or relating to the next to the last syllable of a word Penultimate isn't the last word in words for things that are next to last. There is a pair of noun synonyms that are used commonly enough to have gained entry into abridged dictionaries: penult and penultima. Although all three can refer to something that's next to last, penult and penultima are usually a bit more specific; they are used most often to identify the next to last syllable of a word. All three derive from paenultima, the feminine of paenultimus, a Latin root from paene ("almost") and ultimus ("last"). You may occasionally hear the word penultimate used as an intensified version of ultimate, as in "a race they've called 'the penultimate challenge.'" This use isn't typically found in edited prose, however, or in dictionaries. One of our editors discusses it in this video.

Recalcitrant

1 : obstinately defiant of authority or restraint 2 a : difficult to manage or operate b : not responsive to treatment c : resistant Long before any human was dubbed "recalcitrant" in English (that first occurred in the 18th century), there were stubborn mules (and horses) kicking back their heels. The ancient Romans noted as much (Pliny the Elder among them), and they had a word for it: recalcitrare, which literally means "to kick back." (Its root calc-, meaning "heel," is also the root of calcaneus, the large bone of the heel in humans.) Certainly Roman citizens in Pliny's time were sometimes willful and hardheaded—as attested by various Latin words meaning "stubborn"—but it wasn't until later that writers of Late Latin applied recalcitrare and its derivative adjective to humans who were stubborn as mules.

Elysian (ih-LIZH-un)

1 : of or relating to Elysium [1: the abode of the blessed after death in classical mythology 2: a place or state of bliss, felicity, or delight] 2 : blissful, delightful In classical mythology, Elysium, also known as the Elysian Fields, was the paradise reserved for the heroes immortalized by the gods. Ancient Greek poets imagined it as the abode of the blessed after death, but in English the concept has more often been applied figuratively. In his history play Henry V, William Shakespeare used the place-name as a word for a peaceful state of sleep enjoyed by a mere mortal, and 18th-century English lexicographer and author Samuel Johnson wrote in The Rambler that in reading pastoral poetry we allow ourselves "to be transported to elysian regions, where we are met with nothing but joy, and plenty, and contentment..." In Walden a century later Henry David Thoreau wrote that "The summer, in some climates, makes possible to man a sort of Elysian life."

Parochial (puh-ROH-kee-ul)

1 : of or relating to a church parish 2 : of or relating to a parish as a unit of local government 3 : confined or restricted as if within the borders of a parish : limited in range or scope (as to a narrow area or region) : provincial, narrow In the Greek of the New Testament, the word paroikia means "temporary residence in a foreign land" and comes from the Greek word for "stranger": paroikos. Early Christians used this designation for their colonies because they considered heaven their real home. But temporary or not, these Christian colonies became more organized as time went on. Thus, in Late Latin, parochia became the designation for a group of Christians in a given area under the leadership of one pastor—what we came to call a parish in the 14th century. Both parish and its related adjective parochial were borrowed at that time directly from Anglo-French terms that had been derived from the Late Latin. We didn't begin to use parochial in its "narrow" sense until the mid-19th century.

Arboreal (ahr-BOR-ee-ul)

1 : of or relating to a tree : resembling a tree 2 : inhabiting or frequenting trees Arbor, the Latin word for "tree," has been a rich source of tree-related words in English, though a few are fairly rare. Some arbor descendants are generally synonymous with arboreal: arboraceous, arborary, arboreous, and arborous. Others are primarily synonymous with arboreal in the sense of "relating to or resembling a tree": arborescent, arboresque, arborical, and arboriform. And one, arboricole, is a synonym of arboreal in its sense of "inhabiting trees." The verb arborize means "to branch freely," and arborvitae is the name of a shrub that means literally "tree of life." There's also arboretum, a place where trees are cultivated, and arboriculture, the cultivation of trees. And we can't forget Arbor Day, which since 1872 has named a day set aside by various states (and the national government) for planting trees. Despite its spelling, however, the English word arbor, in the sense of a "bower," does not have its roots in the Latin arbor. Instead, it arises by way of the Anglo-French herbe from the Latin herba, meaning "herb" or "grass."

Outlandish (out-LAN-dish)

1 : of or relating to another country : foreign 2 a : strikingly out of the ordinary : bizarre b : exceeding proper or reasonable limits or standards 3 : remote from civilization In olden times, English speakers used the phrase "outlandish man" to refer to a foreigner—or, one who came from an outland, which originally meant "a foreign land." From here, outlandish broadened in usage from a word meaning "from another land" to one describing something unfamiliar or strange. Dress was a common early target for the adjective; English novelist Henry Fielding, in Tom Jones (1749), writes of a woman who was "drest in one of your outlandish Garments." Nowadays, the word can be applied to anything that strikes us as out of the ordinary, from bizarre conspiracy theories to exaggerated boasting.

Agrarian

1 : of or relating to fields or lands or their tenure 2 a : of, relating to, or characteristic of farmers or their way of life b : organized or designed to promote agricultural interests Today, an acre is generally considered to be a unit of land measuring 43,560 square feet (4,047 square meters). Before that standard was set, it's believed that an acre represented a rougher measurement: the amount of land that could be plowed in one day with a yoke of oxen. Both acre and agrarian derive from the Latin noun ager and the Greek noun agrós, meaning "piece of land, field." (You can probably guess that agriculture is another descendant.) Agrarian, first used in English in the 16th century, describes things pertaining to the cultivation of fields, as well as the farmers who cultivate them.

Sacerdotal (sass-er-DOH-tul)

1 : of or relating to priests or a priesthood : priestly 2 : of, relating to, or suggesting religious belief emphasizing the powers of priests as essential mediators between God and humankind Sacerdotal is one of a host of English words derived from the Latin adjective sacer, meaning "sacred." Other words derived from sacer include desecrate, sacrifice, sacrilege, consecrate, sacrament, and even execrable (developed from the Latin word exsecrari, meaning "to put under a curse"). One surprising sacer descendant is sacrum, referring to the series of five vertebrae in the lower back connected to the pelvis. In Latin this bone was called the os sacrum, or "holy bone," a translation of the Greek hieron osteon.

Agonistic (ag-uh-NISS-tik)

1 : of or relating to the athletic contests of ancient Greece 2 : argumentative 3 : striving for effect : strained 4 : of, relating to, or being aggressive or defensive social interaction (such as fighting, fleeing, or submitting) between individuals usually of the same species Agonistic has its roots in ancient Greece—specifically in the agonistic (to use the oldest sense of the word) athletic contests called agons featured at public festivals. From physical conflict to verbal jousting, agonistic came to be used as a synonym for argumentative and later to mean "striving for effect" or "strained." Common current use, however, is biological, relating to confrontational interaction among animals of the same species and the responsive behaviors—such as aggression, flight, or submission—they exhibit. Agonistic is also sometimes used to describe an agonist muscle, a muscle that on contracting is automatically checked and controlled by an opposing muscle, that other muscle being an antagonist. For example, during a bicep curl in weight lifting, the (contracted) bicep is the agonistic muscle and the (relaxed) triceps muscle is the antagonist.

Kinetic (kuh-NET-ik)

1 : of or relating to the motion of material bodies and the forces and energy associated therewith 2 a : active, lively b : dynamic, energizing 3 : of or relating to kinetic art Kinetic comes from the Greek word kinētikos, meaning "of motion," which in turn traces to the verb kinein, meaning "to move." Compared to some other English words that have their roots in Greek, kinetic is a relatively young English word; the earliest evidence we have of its use is from the 19th century. Although it deals with the motion of images rather than material bodies, the word cinema is also related to kinein. The verb kinein is the source of the Greek kinēma, meaning "movement," to which the French referred in the coining of their cinématographe. Cinématographe is the word that gave rise to the English word cinematograph, of which cinema is simply a shortened form.

Antediluvian

1 : of or relating to the period before the flood described in the Bible 2 a : made, evolved, or developed a long time ago b : extremely primitive or outmoded Before there was antediluvian, there were the Latin words ante (meaning "before") and diluvium (meaning "flood"). In the 1600s, English speakers were using antediluvian to describe conditions they believed existed before the great flood described in the biblical account of Noah and the ark. By the early 1700s, the word had come to be used as both an adjective and a noun referring to anything or anyone prodigiously old. Naturalist Charles Darwin used it to characterize the mighty "antediluvian trees" some prehistoric mammals might have used as a food source, and in his American Notes, Charles Dickens described an elderly lady who informed him, "It is an extremely proud and pleasant thing ... to be an antediluvian."

Mercurial

1 : of, relating to, or born under the planet Mercury 2 : having the qualities of eloquence, ingenuity, or thievishness attributed to the god Mercury or to the influence of the planet Mercury 3 : characterized by rapid and unpredictable changeableness of mood 4 : of, relating to, containing, or caused by mercury The Roman god Mercury (Mercurius in Latin) was the messenger and herald of the gods and also the god of merchants and thieves (his counterpart in Greek mythology is Hermes). He was noted for his eloquence, swiftness, and cunning, and the Romans named what appeared to them to be the fastest-moving planet in his honor. The Latin adjective derived from his name, mercurialis, meaning "of or relating to Mercury," was borrowed into English in the 14th century as mercurial. Although the adjective initially meant "born under the planet Mercury," it came to mean "having qualities attributed to the god Mercury or the influence of the planet Mercury," and then "unpredictably changeable."

Fictitious (fik-TISH-us)

1 : of, relating to, or characteristic of fiction : imaginary 2 a : conventionally or hypothetically assumed or accepted b of a name : false, assumed 3 : not genuinely felt Fictitious is related to the Medieval Latin word fictīcius, meaning "artificial," "imaginary," "feigned," or "fraudulent." It was first used in English as an antonym for natural. For instance, a fake diamond would be referred to as a fictitious one. This use indicates the word's deeper Latin roots: fictīcius is from the Latin verb fingere, meaning "to mold, fashion, make a likeness of; pretend to be." Nowadays, fictitious is no longer used for physical things shaped by the human hand. Rather, it is typically used for imaginative creations or for feigned emotions.

Byzantine (BIZ-un-teen)

1 : of, relating to, or characteristic of the ancient city of Byzantium 2 architecture : of, relating to, or having the characteristics of a style of architecture developed in the Byzantine Empire especially in the fifth and sixth centuries featuring the dome carried on pendentives over a square and incrustation with marble veneering and with colored mosaics on grounds of gold 3 Christianity : of or relating to the churches using a traditional Greek rite and subject to Eastern canon law 4 often not capitalized a : of, relating to, or characterized by a devious and usually surreptitious manner of operation b : intricately involved : labyrinthine Today, the city that lies on the Bosporus Strait in Turkey is named Istanbul, but it was once known as Constantinople (a name given to it when it became the capital of the Eastern Roman, or Byzantine, Empire), and in ancient times, it was called Byzantium. Its history is exotic—filled with mystics, wars, and political infighting—and over time the word Byzantine (from Late Latin Byzantinus, the name for a native of Byzantium) became synonymous with anything characteristic of the city or empire, from architecture to intrigue. The figurative sense referring to a devious manner of operation first appeared in the late 1930s. It was popularized by frequent use in reference to the Soviet Union, whose secrecy and despotism were equated by Westerners with what went on in the old Byzantine Empire.

Homiletic (hah-muh-LET-ik)

1 : of, relating to, or resembling a homily 2 : of or relating to the art of preaching; also : preachy Homiletic came to us by way of Latin from Greek homilētikos, meaning "affable" or "social." Homilētikos came from homilein, meaning "to talk with," "to address," or "to make a speech," which in turn came from homilos, the Greek word for "crowd" or "assembly." Homilos and homilein also gave English, by way of Latin homilia and French omelie, the word homily, which is used for a short sermon, a lecture on a moral theme, and an inspirational catchphrase or platitude. Like homily, homiletic focuses on the morally instructive nature of a discourse. Homiletic can also be used derogatorily in the sense of "preachy."

Cuckoo (KOO-koo)

1 : of, relating to, or resembling the cuckoo 2 : deficient in sense or intelligence : silly The cuckoo bird is so named for its one-note song, which in Middle English was represented as cuccu in imitation. Figurative use of cuckoo, which exists as an adjective meaning "crazy" or "weak in intellect or common sense," and as a noun for a person who can be described as such, may be an allusion to the bird's eponymous (and monotonous) call. But it may also be inspired by a peculiar habit exhibited by some species, in which a female will lay her eggs in the nest of another bird, to be hatched by that bird. In Old French, the name of the bird, cucu, also refers to a husband whose wife is unfaithful. That sense is believed to come from the female cuckoo bird's habit in some species of changing mates, or to the same egg-laying habit that influenced English figurative use. Cucu is also the source of English cuckold.

Epistolary (ih-PIST-uh-lair-ee)

1 : of, relating to, or suitable to a letter 2 : contained in or carried on by letters 3 : written in the form of a series of letters Epistolary was formed from the noun epistle, which refers to a composition written in the form of a letter to a particular person or group. In its original sense, epistle refers to one of the 21 letters (such as those from the apostle Paul) found in the New Testament. Epistle came to English in the 13th century, via Anglo-French and Latin, from the Greek noun epistolē, meaning "message" or "letter." Epistolē, in turn, came from the verb epistellein, meaning "to send to" or "to send from." Epistolary appeared in English four centuries after epistle and can be used to describe something related to or contained in a letter (as in "epistolary greetings") or composed of letters (as in "an epistolary novel").

Churlish

1 : of, resembling, or characteristic of a churl : vulgar 2 : marked by a lack of civility or graciousness : surly 3 : difficult to work with or deal with : intractable It is easy to understand how churlish has come to mean "vulgar," "surly," and "intractable"—if you know your English history. In Anglo-Saxon England, a churl, or ceorl, was a freeman of the lowest rank who owned and cultivated a small farm. He had certain rights and had upward mobility to rise to the rank of thane [Thane- (in Anglo-Saxon England) a man who held land granted by the king or by a military nobleman, ranking between an ordinary freeman and a hereditary noble. (in Scotland) a man, often the chief of a clan, who held land from a Scottish king and ranked with an earl's [[ Earl - a British nobleman ranking above a viscount [[[ Viscount - a British nobleman ranking above a baron [[[[a member of the lowest order of the British nobility. The term "Baron" is not used as a form of address in Britain, barons usually being referred to as "Lord.".]]]] and below an earl.]]] and below a marquess [[[a British nobleman ranking above an earl and below a duke [[[[a male holding the highest hereditary title in the British and certain other peerages.]]]] .]]] .]] son.] . After the Norman Conquest (The Norman Conquest (or the Conquest) was the 11th-century invasion and occupation of England by an army made up of Normans, Bretons, Flemish, and men from other French provinces, all led by the Duke of Normandy later styled William the Conqueror.) , however, many churls became serfs, a change in status that meant losing not just social mobility but geographical mobility as well. The lowest rungs of a social system often serve as inspiration for a language's pejoratives, and churl eventually came to be used as a term for a rude, ill-bred person. If the peerage is hard to keep up with, here is a summary: The five ranks, in descending order, are duke, marquess, earl (see count), viscount, and baron. Until 1999, peers were entitled to sit in the House of Lords and exempted from jury duty. Titles may be hereditary or granted for life.

Permutation

1 : often major or fundamental change (as in character or condition) based primarily on rearrangement of existent elements; also : a form or variety resulting from such change 2 a : the act or process of changing the lineal order of an ordered set of objects b : an ordered arrangement of a set of objects Permutation has not changed all that much since it was borrowed into Middle English from Anglo-French as permutacioun, meaning "exchange, transformation." Permutacioun traces back to the Latin verb permutare, meaning "to change thoroughly, exchange," and ultimately derives from the Latin mutare, "to change." Other descendants of mutare in English include commute, mutant, and mutual. Permutation also has a specific application in the field of mathematics relating to the ordering of a given set of objects. For example, permutations of items a, b, and c are abc, acb, bac, etc.

Troubadour (TROO-buh-dor)

1 : one of a class of lyric poets and poet-musicians often of knightly rank who flourished from the 11th to the end of the 13th century chiefly in the south of France and the north of Italy and whose major theme was courtly love 2 : a singer especially of folk songs In the Middle Ages, troubadours were the shining knights of poetry (in fact, some were ranked as high as knights in the feudal class structure). Troubadours made chivalry a high art, writing poems and singing about chivalrous love, creating the mystique of refined damsels, and glorifying the gallant knight on his charger. Troubadour was a fitting name for such creative artists: it derives from an Old Occitan word meaning "to compose." In modern contexts, troubadour still refers to the song-meisters of the Middle Ages, but it has been extended to cover contemporary poet-musicians as well.

Forte (FOR-tay)

1 : one's strong point 2 : the part of a sword or foil blade that is between the middle and the hilt and that is the strongest part of the blade Forte derives from the sport of fencing. When English speakers borrowed the word from French in the 17th century, it referred to the strongest part of a sword blade, between the middle and the hilt. It is therefore unsurprising that forte eventually developed an extended metaphorical sense for a person's strong point. (Incidentally, forte has its counterpoint in the word foible, meaning both the weakest part of a sword blade and a person's weak point.) There is some controversy over how to correctly pronounce forte. Common choices in American English are "FOR-tay" and "for-TAY," but many usage commentators recommend rhyming it with fort. In French, it would be written le fort and pronounced more similar to English for. You can take your choice, knowing that someone somewhere will dislike whichever variant you choose. All, however, are standard.

Intoxicate (in-TAHK-suh-kayt)

1 : poison 2 a : to excite or stupefy by alcohol or a drug especially to the point where physical and mental control is markedly diminished b : to excite or elate to the point of enthusiasm or frenzy For those who think that alcohol and drugs qualify as poisons, the history of intoxicate offers some etymological evidence to bolster your argument. Intoxicate traces back to toxicum, the Latin word for "poison"—and the earliest meaning of intoxicate was as an adjective describing something (such as the tip of an arrow or dart) steeped in or smeared with poison. That meaning dates to the 15th century; the related verb, meaning "to poison," occurs in the 16th. Both senses are now obsolete. Today, we talk about such harmless things as flowers and perfume having the power to intoxicate. Toxicum turns up in the etymologies of a number of other English words including toxic ("poisonous"), intoxicant ("something that intoxicates"), and detoxify ("to remove a poison from"), as well as a number of names for various poisons themselves.

Valorous (VAL-uh-russ)

1 : possessing or acting with bravery or boldness : courageous 2 : marked by, exhibiting, or carried out with courage or determination : heroic If you are boldly seeking synonyms for brave, consider valorous as well as courageous, intrepid, dauntless, and bold—all of which mean "having or showing no fear when faced with danger or difficulty." Brave is the most straightforward of these, implying lack of fear in alarming or difficult circumstances. Courageous carries a sense of stout-hearted resolution in the face of danger, while intrepid suggests downright daring in confronting peril. Dauntless suggests determination and resolution despite danger. Bold typically indicates a forward or defiant tendency to thrust oneself into dangerous situations. Valorous, which comes from Middle English valour, meaning "worth, worthiness, or bravery," suggests illustrious bravery and sometimes has an archaic or romantic ring.

Hegemony (hih-JEM-uh-nee)

1 : preponderant [1: having superior weight, force, or influence 2: having greater prevalence] influence or authority over others : domination 2 : the social, cultural, ideological, or economic influence exerted by a dominant group Hegemony comes to English from the Greek hēgemonia, a noun formed from the verb hēgeisthai ("to lead"), which also gave us the word exegesis (meaning "exposition" or "explanation"). Hegemony was first used in English in the mid-16th century in reference to the control once wielded by the ancient Greek states, and it was reapplied in later centuries as other nations subsequently rose to power. By the 19th century, it had acquired a second sense referring to the social or cultural influence wielded by a dominant member over others of its kind, such as the domination within an industry by a business conglomerate over smaller businesses.

Perennial

1 : present at all seasons of the year 2 : persisting for several years usually with new herbaceous growth from a perennating part 3 a : persistent, enduring b : continuing without interruption : constant, perpetual c : regularly repeated or renewed : recurrent Nowadays when we talk about "perennial plants," or simply "perennials" (perennial can be a noun, too), we mean plants that die back seasonally but produce new growth in the spring. But originally perennial was equivalent to evergreen, used for plants that remain with us all year. We took this "throughout the year" sense straight from the Romans, whose Latin perennis combined per- ("throughout") with a form of annus ("year"). The poet Ovid, writing around the beginning of the first millennium, used the Latin word to refer to a "perennial spring" (a water source), and the scholar Pliny used it of birds that don't migrate. Our perennial retains these same uses, for streams and occasionally for birds, but it has long had extended meanings, too.

Fathom

1 : probe 2 : to take soundings : to measure by a sounding line 3 : to penetrate and come to understand 4 : ponder Today's word comes to us from Old English fæthm, meaning "outstretched arms." The noun fathom, which now commonly refers to a measure (especially of depth) of six feet, was originally used for the distance, fingertip to fingertip, created by stretching one's arms straight out from the sides of the body. In one of its earliest uses, the verb fathom meant to encircle something with the arms as if for measuring and was also a synonym of embrace. In the 1600s, however, fathom took on the meaning of using a sounding line to measure depth. At the same time, the verb also developed senses synonymous with probe or investigate, and is now frequently used to refer to the act of getting to the bottom of something, figuratively speaking.

Spontaneous (spahn-TAY-nee-us)

1 : proceeding from natural feeling or native tendency without external constraint 2 : arising from a momentary impulse 3 : controlled and directed internally : self-acting 4 : produced without being planted or without human labor : indigenous 5 : developing or occurring without apparent external influence, force, cause, or treatment 6 : not apparently contrived or manipulated : natural When English philosopher Thomas Hobbes penned his 1656 The Questions Concerning Liberty, Necessity, and Chance he included the following: "all voluntary actions ... are called also spontaneous, and said to be done by man's own accord." Hobbes was writing in English, but he knew Latin perfectly well too, including the source of spontaneous; the word comes, via Late Latin spontaneus, from the Latin sponte, meaning "of one's free will, voluntarily." In modern use, the word spontaneous is frequently heard in more mundane settings, where it often describes what is done or said without a lot of thought or planning.

Haptic (HAP-tik)

1 : relating to or based on the sense of touch 2 : characterized by a predilection for the sense of touch Haptic felt its way into English in the 19th century as a back-formation of haptics, a noun which was borrowed from the New Latin hapticē (meaning "science of touch," and derived ultimately from the Greek haptesthai, meaning "to touch") in the 1700s. Haptic was originally a medical synonym for tactile. By the 20th century, it had developed a psychological sense, describing individuals whose perception supposedly depended primarily on touch rather than sight. Although almost no one today divides humans into haptic and visual personalities, English retains the broadened psychological sense of haptic as well as the older "tactile" sense.

Roseate (ROH-zee-ut)

1 : resembling a rose especially in color 2 : overly optimistic : viewed favorably "Everything's coming up roses." "He views the world through rose-tinted glasses." "She has a rosy outlook on life." In English, we tend to associate roses and rose color with optimism, and roseate is no exception. Roseate comes from the Latin adjective roseus, and ultimately from the noun rosa, meaning "rose." Figurative use of roseate (with the meaning "happy" or "smiling") began in the 18th century, but the literal sense of the term has been in the language since the 15th century. It's especially well-suited to literary descriptions of sunrises and sunsets: "through yon peaks of cloud-like snow / The roseate sunlight quivers," wrote Percy Bysshe Shelley in Prometheus Unbound. And in an early short story, Edith Wharton wrote, "The sunset was perfect and a roseate light, transfiguring the distant spire, lingered late in the west."

Sentient (SEN-shee-unt)

1 : responsive to or conscious of sense impressions 2 : having or showing realization, perception, or knowledge : aware 3 : finely sensitive in perception or feeling You may have guessed that sentient has something to do with the senses. The initial spelling sent- or sens- is often a giveaway for such a meaning. A sentient being is one who perceives and responds to sensations of whatever kind—sight, hearing, touch, taste, or smell. Sentient ultimately comes from the Latin verb sentire, which means "to feel" or "to perceive," and is related to the noun sensus, meaning "sense." A few related English words are sentiment and sentimental, which have to do with emotions, sensual, which relates to more physical sensations, and the trio of assent, consent, and dissent, which involve one's expressions of agreement (or disagreement in the case of dissent) in thought and feeling with another.

Uncanny

1 : seeming to have a supernatural character or origin : eerie, mysterious 2 : being beyond what is normal or expected : suggesting superhuman or supernatural powers Weird and eerie are synonyms of uncanny, but there are subtle differences in the meanings of the three words. Weird may be used to describe something that is generally strange or out of the ordinary. Eerie suggests an uneasy or fearful consciousness that some kind of mysterious and malign powers are at work, while uncanny, which debuted in the 18th century, implies disquieting strangeness or mysteriousness. English also has a word canny, but canny and uncanny should not be interpreted as opposites. Canny, which first appeared in English in the 16th century, means "clever," "shrewd," or "prudent," as in "a canny lawyer" or "a canny investment."

Crabwise (KRAB-wyze)

1 : sideways 2 : in a sidling or cautiously indirect manner There's no reason to be indirect when explaining the etymology of crabwise—we'll get right to the point. As you might guess, the meaning of the word is directly related to that sidling sea creature, the crab. If you have visited a beach near the sea, you have probably seen crabs scuttling along, often moving sideways. Though the behavior is surely above reproach to the crabs themselves, English speakers tend to be suspicious of what comes at them from the side, and the modern meanings of crabwise reflect this suspicion of the crab's lateral approach. The word crept into English in the early 19th century and has been sidling into our sentences ever since.

Shambles (SHAM-bulz)

1 : slaughterhouse 2 a : a place of mass slaughter or bloodshed b : a scene or a state of great destruction : wreckage c : a scene or a state of great disorder or confusion d : great confusion : mess How does a word meaning "footstool" turn into a word meaning "mess"? Start with the Latin scamillum, meaning "little bench." Modify the spelling and you get the Old English sceamol, meaning "footstool" or "a table used for counting money or exhibiting goods." Alter again to the Middle English shameles, and the meaning can easily become more specific: "a table for the exhibition of meat for sale." Pluralize and you have the base of the 15th-century term shambles, meaning "meat market." A century takes shambles from "meat market" to "slaughterhouse," then to figurative use referring to a place of terrible slaughter or bloodshed (say, a battlefield). The scene of a slaughter can get messy, so it's logical for the word to pick up the modern sense "mess" or "state of great confusion." Transition accomplished.

Anomaly (uh-NAH-muh-lee)

1 : something different, abnormal, peculiar, or not easily classified : something anomalous 2 : deviation from the common rule : irregularity 3 : the angular distance of a planet from its perihelion as seen from the sun You might be familiar with the Greek word homos, which means "same." It is from this word that we get words like homonym, homogeneous, and homophone, all of which have to do with sameness or similarity. What does this have to do with anomaly? Although it's not obvious, homos is a part of the etymology of anomaly, too. Anomaly is a descendant of the Greek word anōmalos, which means "uneven" or "irregular." Anōmalos comes from the prefix a- (meaning "not") and the word homalos (meaning "even")—and homalos comes from homos.

Kitsch (KITCH)

1 : something that appeals to popular or lowbrow taste and is often of poor quality 2 : a tacky or lowbrow quality or condition "The fashionable clothing label ... kicked off the revival last June ..., putting its models in Miranda-inspired swimsuits and marching them through a gantlet of 50 tons of bananas," writes Mac Margolis in Newsweek International (January 2006) of a fabulously kitschy gala commemoration for the late Brazilian singer and actress Carmen Miranda. Since we borrowed kitsch from German in the 1920s, it has been our word for things in the realm of popular culture that dangle, like car mirror dice, precariously close to tackiness. But although things that can be described with kitsch and the related adjective kitschy are clearly not fine art, they may appeal to certain tastes—some folks delight in velvet paintings, plastic flamingos, dashboard hula dancers, and Carmen Miranda revivals!

Opprobrium

1 : something that brings disgrace 2 a : public disgrace or ill fame that follows from conduct considered grossly wrong or vicious b : contempt, reproach Opprobrium was borrowed into English from Latin in the 17th century. It derives from the Latin verb opprobrare, which means "to reproach." That verb, in turn, came from the noun probrum, meaning "disgraceful act" or "reproach." The adjective form of opprobrium is opprobrious, which in English means "scurrilous" or "infamous." One might commit an "opprobrious crime" or be berated with "opprobrious language," for example. Probrum gave English another word too, but you might have a little trouble guessing it. It is exprobrate, an archaic synonym of censure and upbraid

Debonair (deb-uh-NAIR)

1 : suave, urbane 2 : lighthearted, nonchalant In Anglo-French, someone who was genteel and well-brought-up was described as deboneire—literally "of good family or nature" (from the three-word phrase de bon aire). When the word was borrowed into English in the 13th century, it basically meant "courteous," a narrow sense now pretty much obsolete. Today's debonair incorporates charm, polish, and worldliness, often combined with a carefree attitude (think James Bond). And yes, we tend to use this sense mostly, though not exclusively, of men. The "carefree" characteristic of a debonair person influenced the modern "lighthearted, nonchalant" sense of the word, as illustrated by film critic Owen Gleiberman: "It wouldn't be wrong to call Ocean's Eleven a trifle, but it's a debonair trifle made with high-wire effrontery, the kind that can't be faked. This giddy and glancing charade is one of the most sheerly pleasurable movies to come out this year...."

Sophistry

1 : subtly deceptive reasoning or argumentation 2 : an argument apparently correct in form but actually invalid; especially : such an argument used to deceive The original Sophists were ancient Greek teachers of rhetoric and philosophy prominent in the 5th century B.C.E. In their heyday, these philosophers were considered adroit in their reasoning, but later philosophers (particularly Plato) described them as sham philosophers, out for money and willing to say anything to win an argument. Thus, sophist—which can be traced back, via the Greek sophistēs ("wise man" or "expert") and sophizesthai ("to become wise"), to sophos, meaning "clever" or wise"—earned a negative connotation as "a captious or fallacious reasoner."

Avuncular (uh-VUNK-yuh-ler)

1 : suggestive of an uncle especially in kindliness or geniality 2 : of or relating to an uncle Not all uncles are likeable fellows (Hamlet's murderous Uncle Claudius, for example, isn't exactly Mr. Nice Guy in William Shakespeare's tragedy), but avuncular reveals that, as a group, uncles are generally seen as affable and benevolent, if at times a bit patronizing. Avuncular derives from the Latin noun avunculus, which translates as "maternal uncle," but since at least the 19th century English speakers have used avuncular to refer to uncles from either side of the family or even to individuals who are simply uncle-like in character or behavior. And in case you were wondering, avunculus is also an ancestor of the word uncle itself.

Occlusion (uh-KLOO-zhun)

1 : the act of occluding : the state of being occluded: such as a : the complete obstruction of the breath passage in the articulation of a speech sound b : the bringing of the opposing surfaces of the teeth of the two jaws into contact; also : the relation between the surfaces when in contact c : the inclusion or sorption of gas trapped during solidification of a material 2 : the front formed by a cold front overtaking a warm front and lifting the warm air above the earth's surface Occlusion is a descendant of the Latin verb occludere, meaning "to close up." Occludere in turn comes from the prefix ob-, here meaning "in the way," and the verb claudere, meaning "to close or shut." Occlusion is one of many English terms derived from claudere. Some others are recluse, seclusion, and exclude. An occlusion occurs when something has been closed up or blocked off. Almost all heart attacks are the result of the occlusion of a coronary (heart) artery by a blood clot. When a person's upper and lower teeth form a malocclusion, they close incorrectly or badly. An occlusion, or occluded front, happens when a fast-moving cold front overtakes a slow-moving warm front and slides underneath it, lifting the warm air and blocking its movement.

Injunction (in-JUNK-shun)

1 : the act or an instance of enjoining : order, admonition 2 : a court order requiring a party to do or refrain from doing a specified act Injunction derives, via Anglo-French and Late Latin, from the Latin verb injungere, which in turn is based on jungere, meaning "to join." Like our verb enjoin, injungere means "to direct or impose by authoritative order or with urgent admonition." (Not surprisingly, enjoin is also a descendant of injungere.) Injunction has been around in English since at least the 15th century, when it began life as a word meaning "authoritative command." In the 16th century, it developed a legal second sense applying to a court order. It has also been used as a synonym of conjunction, another jungere descendant meaning "union," but that sense is extremely rare.

Visage

1 : the face, countenance, or appearance of a person or sometimes an animal 2 : aspect, appearance The word face may be a pretty generic word, but it has several high-flown synonyms. Physiognomy, for instance, refers to facial features thought to reveal qualities of temperament or character. "I thought I could detect in his physiognomy a mind owning better qualities than his father ever possessed," Emily Brontë writes in Wuthering Heights. Countenance is often used to refer to the face as an indication of mood or emotion, as Bram Stoker types in Dracula: "Mina struggled hard to keep her brave countenance." Visage can refer to the face of a person or an animal, and it can also refer to the appearance of nonliving things, as in "the dirty visage of the old abandoned factory."

Quintessence (kwin-TESS-unss)

1 : the fifth and highest element in ancient and medieval philosophy that permeates all nature and is the substance composing the celestial bodies 2 : the essence of a thing in its purest and most concentrated form 3 : the most typical example or representative Long ago, when people believed that the earth was made up of four elements—earth, air, fire, and water—they thought the stars and planets were made up of yet another element. In the Middle Ages, people called this element by its Medieval Latin name, quinta essentia, literally, "fifth essence." Our forebears believed the quinta essentia was essential to all kinds of matter, and if they could somehow isolate it, it would cure all disease. We have since given up on that idea, but we kept quintessence, the offspring of quinta essentia, as a word for the purest essence of a thing. Some modern physicists have given quintessence a new twist—they use it to refer to a form of the dark energy believed to make up almost 70 percent of the energy in the observable universe.

Gist

1 : the ground of a legal action 2 : the main point or part : essence The word gist often appears in such contexts as "the gist of the conversation was that..." to let us know that what follows will be a statement or summary that in some way encapsulates the main point or overarching theme. The gist of a conversation, argument, story, or what-have-you is what we rely on when the actual words and details are only imperfectly recalled, inessential, or too voluminous to recount in their entirety. Gist was borrowed from the Anglo-French legal phrase laccion gist ("the action lies or is based [on]") in the 17th century, and it was originally used in law as a term referring to the foundation or grounds for a legal action without which the action would not be legally sustainable.

Midriff (MID-riff)

1 : the mid-region of the human torso : midsection 2 a : a section of a garment that covers the midriff b : a garment that exposes the midriff 3 : a body partition of muscle and connective tissue; specifically : the partition separating the chest and abdominal cavities in mammals : diaphragm Midriff is now most commonly encountered in the mid-torso or clothing-related senses. These senses are relatively young, having appeared, respectively, in the early 19th and mid-20th centuries. For most of its history, however, midriff has been used to refer to the diaphragm (a large flat muscle separating the lungs from the stomach area). The diaphragm sense has been with us for more than 1,000 years, with the earliest known uses being found in Old English manuscripts such as Bald's Leechbook, a medical text that is believed to date back to the 9th century. The riff in midriff comes from Old English hrif ("belly, womb"). Hrif is akin to Old High German href ("womb") and probably also to Latin corpus ("body").

Aerie (AIR-ee)

1 : the nest of a bird on a cliff or a mountaintop 2 : an elevated often secluded dwelling, structure, or position English poet John Milton put a variant of aerie to good use in Paradise Lost (1667), writing, "... there the eagle and the stork / On cliffs and cedar tops their eyries build." But Milton wasn't the first to use the term, which comes to us via Medieval Latin and Old French and probably traces to an earlier Latin word, ager, meaning "field." English speakers had been employing aerie as a word for a bird's nest for more than a century when he penned those words. Eventually, aerie was applied to human dwellings as well as birds' nests. At first, this sense referred to dwellings nestled high up in mountains or hills. These days, you're also likely to hear high-rise city apartments or offices referred to as "aeries."

Ratiocination (rat-ee-oh-suh-NAY-shun)

1 : the process of exact thinking : reasoning 2 : a reasoned train of thought Edgar Allan Poe is said to have called the 1841 story "The Murders in the Rue Morgue" his first "tale of ratiocination." Many today agree with his assessment and consider that Poe classic to be literature's first detective story. Poe didn't actually use ratiocination in "Rue Morgue," but the term does appear three times in its 1842 sequel, "The Mystery of Marie Roget." In "Marie Roget," the author proved his reasoning ability (ratiocination traces to ratio, Latin for "reason" or "computation"). The second tale was based on an actual murder, and as the case unfolded after the publication of Poe's work, it became clear that his fictional detective had done an amazing job of reasoning through the crime.

Synchronicity

1 : the quality or fact of being synchronous 2 : the coincidental occurrence of events and especially psychic events (as similar thoughts in widely separated persons or a mental image of an unexpected event before it happens) that seem related but are not explained by conventional mechanisms of causality — used especially in the psychology of C. G. Jung "It happens to everyone sooner or later: A certain number pops up wherever you go; an old friend you haven't seen in 20 years since high school appears the same day you're looking at her picture in a yearbook; you're singing a song and turn on the radio—and the same song is playing." Such coincidences, here described by Thomas Ropp in The Arizona Republic, March 29,1999, are examples of synchronicity. The concept is linked to the psychology of Carl Jung. Jung didn't coin the word (the "simultaneousness" sense of synchronicity was already in use), but he gave it special importance in his writings. Jung believed that such "meaningful coincidences" play an important role in our lives. Today, some people even look to synchronicities for spiritual guidance.

Satiety (suh-TYE-uh-tee)

1 : the quality or state of being fed or gratified to or beyond capacity : surfeit, fullness 2 : the revulsion or disgust caused by overindulgence or excess You may have accurately guessed that satiety is related to satisfy, satiate (meaning "to satisfy fully or to excess"), and sate (which means "to glut" or "to satisfy to the full"). Satiety, along with the others, ultimately comes from the Latin word satis, which means "enough." English speakers apparently couldn't get enough of satis- derived words in the 15th and 16th centuries, when all of these words entered the language. Satiety itself was borrowed into English in the mid-1500s from the Middle French word satieté of the same meaning.

Rectitude (REK-tuh-tood)

1 : the quality or state of being straight 2 : moral integrity : righteousness 3 : the quality or state of being correct in judgment or procedure Rectitude has a righteous derivation. It comes straight from the Latin adjective rectus, which means both "right" and "straight." Rectitude itself can mean either "straightness" (an early use referred to literal straightness of lines, although this sense is now rare) or "rightness" of character. Rectus has a number of other descendants in English, including rectangle (a figure with four right angles), rectify ("to make right"), rectilinear ("moving in or forming a straight line"), and even rectus itself (a medical term for any one of several straight muscles in the body).

Caduceus (kuh-DOO-see-us)

1 : the symbolic staff of a herald; specifically : a representation of a staff with two entwined snakes and two wings at the top 2 : a medical insignia bearing a representation of a staff with two entwined snakes and two wings at the top: a : one sometimes used to symbolize a physician but often considered to be an erroneous representation b : the emblem of a medical corps or a department of the armed services (as of the United States Army) The Greek god Hermes, who served as herald and messenger to the other gods, carried a winged staff entwined with two snakes. The staff of Aesculapius, the god of healing, had one snake and no wings. The word caduceus, from Latin, is a modification of Greek karykeion, from karyx, meaning "herald." Strictly speaking, caduceus should refer only to the staff of the herald-god Hermes (Mercury to the Romans), but in practice the word is often applied to the one-snake staff as well. You might logically expect the staff of Aesculapius to be the symbol of the medical profession—and indeed, that is the symbol used by the American Medical Association. But you will also quite frequently see the true caduceus used as a medical symbol.

Frolic

1 : to amuse oneself : make merry 2 : to play and run about happily : romp Frolic is a playful word with a happy history. It traces back to the Dutch word vroolijk ("merry"), which in turn evolved from a Middle Dutch combination of vro ("happy") and the adjectival suffix -lijc ("-ly"). Vro is related to the Old Frisian and Old High German fro, which also means "happy." (It is also a distant relative of Old English frogga, from which Modern English derived frog.) When frolic first entered English in the early-mid 16th century, it was used as an adjective meaning "merry" or "full of fun." The verb came into use by the end of that century, followed a few decades later by a noun use, as in "an evening of fun and frolic."

Lambaste (lam-BAYST)

1 : to assault violently : beat, whip 2 : to attack verbally : censure The origins of lambaste are somewhat uncertain, but the word was most likely formed by combining the verbs lam and baste, both of which mean "to beat severely." (The baste functioning here is unrelated to either the sewing or cooking one.) (Incidentally, lambaste can also be spelled lambast, despite the modern spelling of the verb baste.) Some other synonyms of lambaste include pummel, thrash, and pound. Pummel suggests beating with one's fists ("the boxer ruthlessly pummeled his opponent"). Pound also suggests heavy blows, though perhaps not quite so much as pummel, and may imply a continuous rain of blows ("she pounded on the door"). Thrash means to strike repeatedly and thoroughly as if with a whip and is often used figuratively to mean "to defeat decisively or severely" ("the team thrashed their opponent 44-0").

Allege

1 : to assert without proof or before proving 2 : to bring forward as a reason or excuse These days, someone alleges something before presenting the evidence to prove it (or perhaps without evidence at all), but the word actually derives from the Middle English verb alleggen, meaning "to submit (something) in evidence or as justification." Alleggen, in turn, traces back to Anglo-French and probably ultimately to Latin allegare, meaning "to send as a representative" or "to offer as proof in support of a plea." Indeed, allege once referred to the actions of someone who came forward to testify in court; this sense isn't used anymore, but it led to the development of the current "assert without proof" sense.

Sandbag

1 : to bank, stop up, or weight with sandbags 2 a : to hit or stun with or as if with a sandbag b : to treat unfairly or harshly c : to coerce by crude means d : to conceal or misrepresent one's true position, potential, or intent especially in order to take advantage over : to hide the truth about oneself so as to gain an advantage over another In the 19th century, the verb sandbag began to be used to describe the act of bludgeoning someone with a small, sand-filled bag—a tactic employed by ruffians, usually as a prelude to robbing their victims. The verb went on to develop metaphorical extensions, such as "to coerce by crude means." By the 1940s, it was being used of a strategy in which a poker player with a good hand bets weakly, in order to draw other players into holding on to their hands and raising the bet. The use of sandbag has since evolved to refer to a general strategy of playing down one's position in order to gain some sort of advantage.

Fustigate (FUSS-tuh-gayt)

1 : to beat with or as if with a short heavy club : cudgel 2 : to criticize severely Though it won't leave a bump on your head, severe criticism can be a blow to your self-esteem. It's no wonder that fustigate, when it first appeared in the 17th century, originally meant "to cudgel or beat with a short heavy stick," a sense that reflects the word's derivation from the Latin noun fustis, which means "club" or "staff." The "criticize" sense is more common these days, but the violent use of fustigate was a hit with earlier writers like George Huddesford, who in 1801 told of an angry Jove who "cudgell'd all the constellations, ... / Swore he'd eject the man i' the moon ... / And fustigate him round his orbit."

Canker (KANG-ker)

1 : to become infested with erosive or spreading sores 2 : to corrupt the spirit of 3 : to become corrupted Canker is commonly known as the name for a type of spreading sore that eats into the tissue—a use that obviously furnished the verb with both its medical and figurative senses. The word ultimately traces back to Latin cancer, which can refer to a crab or a malignant tumor. The Greeks have a similar word, karkinos, and according to the ancient Greek physician Galen, the tumor got its name from the way the swollen veins surrounding the affected part resembled a crab's limbs. Cancer was adopted into Old English, becoming canker in Middle English and eventually shifting in meaning to become a general term for ulcerations. Cancer itself was reintroduced to English later, first as a zodiacal word and then as a medical term.

Balkanize (BAWL-kuh-nyze)

1 : to break up (a region, a group, etc.) into smaller and often hostile units 2 : divide, compartmentalize The Balkan Peninsula of southeastern Europe is lapped by the Adriatic Sea in the west and the Black Sea in the east. It is named for the Balkan Mountains, a mountain range which extends from its border with Serbia to the Black Sea. (Balkan derives from the Ottoman Turkish balḳān, meaning "wooded mountain or mountain range.") The Balkan States are commonly characterized as comprising Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Romania, Serbia, and Slovenia, with mainland portions of Greece and the European portion of Turkey often being included as well. The English word balkanize (often written with a capital B) is the lexical offspring of geography and history: the decline of the Ottoman Empire in the 18th century led to a series of revolts that accelerated the fracturing of the region into a number of smaller states whose unstable coexistence led to violence that came to a head in World War I. Since the early 20th century, balkanize and its related noun, balkanization, have come to refer to the kind of divisive action that can weaken countries or groups, as well as other things.

Deflagrate (DEF-luh-grayt)

1 : to burn rapidly with intense heat and sparks being given off 2 : to cause (something) to burn in such a manner Deflagrate combines the Latin verb flagrare, meaning "to burn," with the Latin prefix de-, meaning "down" or "away." Flagrare is also an ancestor of such words as conflagration and flagrant and is distantly related to fulgent and flame. In the field of explosives, deflagrate is used to describe the burning of fuel accelerated by the expansion of gasses under the pressure of containment, which causes the containing vessel to break apart. In comparison, the term detonate (from the Latin tonare, meaning "to thunder") refers to an instant, violent explosion that results when shock waves pass through molecules and displace them at supersonic speed. Deflagrate has been making sparks in English since about 1727, and detonate burst onto the scene at around the same time.

Posture (PAHSS-cher)

1 : to cause to assume a given posture : pose 2 : to assume a posture; especially : to strike a pose for effect 3 : to assume an artificial or pretended attitude : attitudinize The Latin verb ponere, meaning "to put" or "to place," had a role in putting quite a few English terms into place, including component, dispose, expose, impose, oppose, posit, position, positive, postpone, and, yes, posture. The past participle of ponere—positus—gave Latin the noun positura, which has the same meaning as the English noun posture. Positura passed through Italian and Middle French and was finally adopted by English speakers as posture in the late 16th century. The verb posture later developed from the noun, finding its place in English at around the midpoint of the 17th century.

Derogate (DAIR-uh-gayt)

1 : to cause to seem inferior : disparage 2 : to take away a part so as to impair : detract 3 : to act beneath one's position or character Most of us encounter derogatory, the adjective meaning "expressing a low opinion," more frequently than we do derogate, its less common verb relation, but the verb is older; it first appeared in English in the 15th century, while derogatory wasn't adopted until the early 16th. Both words can be traced back to the Late Latin word derogatus, which is the past participle of the verb derogare, meaning "to detract" or "to annul (a law)." Derogare, in turn, derives from the Latin word for "ask," rogāre. Other derogate relatives include derogative, derogation, and derogatorily.

Famish

1 : to cause to suffer severely from hunger 2 : to suffer for lack of something necessary Famish likely developed as an alteration of Middle English famen, meaning "to starve." The Middle English word was borrowed from the Anglo-French verb afamer, which etymologists believe came from Vulgar Latin affamare. We say "believe" because, while no written evidence has yet been found for the Vulgar Latin word affamare, it would be the expected source for the Anglo-French verb based on the combination of the Latin prefix ad- ("to" or "toward") and the root noun fames ("hunger"). In contemporary English, the verb famish is still used on occasion, but it is considerably less common than the related adjective famished, which usually means "hungry" or "starving" but can also mean "needy" or "being in want."

Thimblerig (THIM-bul-rig)

1 : to cheat by trickery 2 : to swindle by a trick in which a small ball or pea is quickly shifted from under one to another of three small cups to fool the spectator guessing its location The game of thimblerig seems innocent enough. The thimblerigger places a little ball, pea, or other small object under one of three thimbles or cups. He or she deftly scoots the cups around on a table, then asks the player to bet on which one hides the object. But thimbleriggers are masters of sleight of hand and can move and manipulate the object unfairly—so the guileless player doesn't stand a chance of winning. (The poor bettor is probably unaware that rig has meant "to manipulate or control usually by deceptive or dishonest means" since the 1800s.) When the same sham is played with nutshells, it's called a shell game, and there's a related game played with cards known as three-card monte.

Blandish

1 : to coax with flattery : cajole 2 : to act or speak in a flattering or coaxing manner The word blandish has been a part of the English language since at least the 14th century with virtually no change in its meaning. It ultimately derives from blandus, a Latin word meaning "mild" or "flattering." One of the earliest known uses of blandish can be found in the sacred writings of Richard Rolle de Hampole, an English hermit and mystic, who cautioned against "the dragon that blandishes with the head and smites with the tail." Although blandish might not exactly be suggestive of dullness, it was the "mild" sense of blandus that gave us our adjective bland, which has a lesser-known sense meaning "smooth and soothing in manner or quality."

Schmooze (SHMOOZ)

1 : to converse informally : chat; also : to chat in a friendly and persuasive manner especially so as to gain favor, business, or connections 2 : to engage in informal conversation with Schmooze (also spelled shmooze) is one of a small, but significant, number of words borrowed from Yiddish that have become relatively common members of the English language. Other such words include chutzpah, lox, maven, mensch, nebbish, schlep, and schlock. Though classified as a High German language, Yiddish also borrows from the Slavic and Latinate languages as well as from Aramaic and Hebrew. It was the Hebrew shěmu'ōth ("news, rumor") that provided Yiddish with the noun shmues ("talk") and the verb shmuesn ("to talk or chat"). Although originally used in English to indicate simply talking in an informal and warm manner, schmooze has since also taken on the suggestion of discussion for the purposes of gaining something.

Secrete (sih-KREET)

1 : to deposit or conceal in a hiding place 2 : to appropriate secretly : abstract If you guessed that the secret to the origins of secrete is the word secret, you are correct. Secrete developed in the mid-18th century as an alteration of a now obsolete verb secret. That verb had the meaning now carried by secrete and derived from the familiar noun secret ("something kept hidden or unexplained"). The noun, in turn, traces back to the Latin secretus, the past participle of the verb secernere, meaning "to separate" or "to distinguish." Incidentally, there is an earlier and distinct verb secrete with the more scientific meaning "to form and give off (a secretion)." That secrete is a back-formation from secretion, another word that can be traced back to secernere.

Disparage (dih-SPAIR-ij)

1 : to depreciate by indirect means (such as invidious comparison) : to speak slightingly about 2 : to lower in rank or reputation : degrade In Middle English, to "disparage" someone meant causing that person to marry someone of inferior rank. Disparage derives from the Anglo-French word desparager, meaning "to marry below one's class." Desparager, in turn, combines the negative prefix des- with parage (meaning "equality" or "lineage"), which itself comes from per, meaning "peer." The original "marriage" sense of disparage is now obsolete, but a closely-related sense (meaning "to lower in rank or reputation") survives in modern English. By the 16th century, English speakers (including William Shakespeare) were also using disparage to mean simply "to belittle."

Permeate (PER-mee-ayt)

1 : to diffuse through or penetrate something 2 : to spread or diffuse through 3 : to pass through the pores or interstices of It's no surprise that permeate means "to pass through something"—it was borrowed into English in the 17th century from Latin permeatus, which comes from the prefix per- ("through") and the verb meare, meaning "to go" or "to pass." Meare itself comes from an ancient root that may have also led to Middle Welsh and Czech words meaning "to go" and "to pass," respectively. Other descendants of meare in English include permeative, permeable, meatus ("a natural body passage"), and the relatively rare irremeable ("offering no possibility of return").

Extemporize

1 : to do something extemporaneously : improvise; especially : to compose, perform, or speak extemporaneously 2 : to get along in a makeshift manner Extemporize means to say or do something on the spur of the moment, an appropriate meaning given the word's history. Extemporize was coined by adding the suffix -ize to Latin ex tempore, meaning "instantaneously" or "on the spur of the moment." Ex tempore, in turn, was formed by combining ex and the noun tempus, meaning "time." Incidentally, ex tempore was also borrowed wholesale into English (where it means "extemporaneously"). Other descendants of Latin ex tempore include the now rare extemporal and extemporary (both synonyms of extemporaneous), and as you have no doubt guessed by now, extemporaneous itself.

Carouse; Carousal (kuh-ROWZ)

1 : to drink liquor freely or excessively 2 : to take part in a drunken revel [ˈrevəl]: engage in dissolute behavior Sixteenth-century English revelers toasting each other's health sometimes drank a brimming mug of spirits straight to the bottom—drinking "all-out," they called it. German tipplers did the same and used the German expression for "all out"—gar aus. The French adopted the German term as carous, using the adverb in their expression boire carous ("to drink all out"), and that phrase, with its idiomatic sense of "to empty the cup," led to carrousse, a French noun meaning "a large draft of liquor." And that's where English speakers picked up carouse in the 1500s, first as a noun (which later took on the sense of a general "drunken revel"), and then as a verb meaning "to drink freely." bacchanalian, debauchery, depraved, dissipated, iniquity, libertine, libidinous, licentious, reprobate, ribald, salacious, sordid, turpitude; (n.) noisy revelry or merrymaking (often with a suggestion of heavy drinking)

Matriculate (muh-TRIK-yuh-layt)

1 : to enroll as a member of a body and especially of a college or university 2 : to be enrolled at a college or university Anybody who has had basic Latin knows that alma mater, a fancy term for the school you attended, comes from a phrase that means "fostering mother." If mater is mother, then matriculate probably has something to do with a school nurturing you just like good old mom, right? Not exactly. If you go back far enough, matriculate is distantly related to the Latin mater, but its maternal associations were lost long ago—even in terms of Latin history. It is more closely related to Late Latin matricula, which means "public roll or register." Matricula has more to do with being enrolled than being mothered, but it is the diminutive form of the Latin matrix, which in Late Latin was used in the sense of "list" or "register" and earlier referred to female animals kept for the purposes of breeding.

Encroach (in-KROHCH)

1 : to enter by gradual steps or by stealth into the possessions or rights of another 2 : to advance beyond the usual or proper limits The history behind encroach is likely to hook you in. The word derives from the Middle English encrochen, which means "to get or seize." The Anglo-French predecessor of encrochen is encrocher, which was formed by combining the prefix en- ("in") with the noun croche ("hook"). Croche also gave us our word crochet, in reference to the hooked needle used in that craft. Encroach carries the meaning of "intrude," both in terms of privilege or property. The word can also hop over legal barriers to describe a general advancement beyond desirable or normal limits (such as a hurricane that encroaches on the mainland).

Quibble

1 : to evade the point of an argument by caviling about words 2 a : to find fault by raising trivial or frivolous objection b : to engage in a petty quarrel : bicker 3 : to subject to minor objections or criticisms In addition to functioning as a verb, quibble also exists as a noun meaning "an evasion of or shift from the point" and "a minor objection or criticism." Both forms of the word arrived in English in the mid-17th century. Presumably (though not certainly) quibble originated as a diminutive of a now obsolete word, quib, which also meant "quibble." In fact, although language experts may quibble over this, there is a possibility that quib can be traced back to the plural of the Latin word qui, meaning "who," which was often used in legal documents. If so, that makes quibble a very distant cousin of the English word who.

Mongrel

1: an individual resulting from the interbreeding of diverse breeds or strains, especially one of unknown ancestry // She owns several dogs, one of which is a mongrel. 2: a cross between types of persons or things // the cinema is ... a mongrel of virtually all the other arts— Gerald Mast

Traduce (truh-DOOSS)

1 : to expose to shame or blame by means of falsehood and misrepresentation 2 : violate, betray Traduce is one of a number of English synonyms that you can choose when you need a word that means "to injure by speaking ill of." Choose traduce when you want to stress the deep personal humiliation, disgrace, and distress felt by the victim. If someone doesn't actually lie, but makes statements that injure by specific and often subtle misrepresentations, malign may be the more precise choice. To make it clear that the speaker is malicious and the statements made are false, calumniate is a good option. But if you need to say that certain statements represent an attempt to destroy a reputation by open and direct abuse, vilify is the word you want.

Decoct (dih-KAHKT)

1 : to extract the flavor of by boiling 2 : boil down, concentrate Decoct boils down to a simple Latin origin: the word decoquere, from de-, meaning "down" or "away," and coquere, meaning "to cook" or "to ripen." Decoct itself is somewhat rare. Its related noun decoction, which refers to either an extract obtained by decocting or the act or process of decocting, is slightly more common but still much less recognizable than some other members of the coquere family, among gastronomical words like biscuit, biscotti, cook, and kitchen. Other coquere descendants include concoct ("to prepare by combining raw materials" or "to devise or fabricate"), concoction ("something concocted"), and precocious ("exceptionally early in development or occurrence" or "exhibiting mature qualities at an unusually early age").

Meander (mee-an-der)

1 : to follow a winding or intricate course 2 : to wander aimlessly or casually without urgent destination : ramble Roam, ramble, and meander all mean to move about from place to place without a plan or definite purpose, but each suggests wandering in a unique way. Roam refers to carefree wandering over a wide area often for pleasure (as in "I roamed over the hills for hours"). Ramble stresses carelessness and indifference to one's course or objective (for instance, "the speaker rambled on without ever coming to the point"). Meander, which comes from Greek Maiandros—an old name for a river in Asia Minor that is now known as the Menderes—implies a winding course and lazy movement, and it is still sometimes associated with rivers (as in, "the river meandered through the town"). Meander can also be used as a noun meaning "a winding path."

Augur (AW-gur)

1 : to foretell especially from omens 2 : to give promise of : presage Auguring is what augurs did in ancient Rome. Augurs were official diviners whose function it was not to foretell the future, but to divine whether the gods approved of a proposed undertaking, such as a military move. They did so by various means, among them observing the behavior of birds and examining the entrails of sacrificed animals. Nowadays, the foretell sense of the verb is often used with an adverb, such as well. Augur comes from Latin and is related to the Latin verb augēre, meaning "to increase."

Prognosticate (prahg-NAHSS-tuh-kayt)

1 : to foretell from signs and symptoms : predict 2 : to give an indication of in advance : foreshadow Prognosticate, which comes from the Greek prognōstikos ("foretelling"), first appears in English during the 15th century. Since that time, prognosticate has been connected with things that give omens or warnings of events to come and with people who can prophesy or predict the future by such signs. William Shakespeare used the "prophesy" sense of prognosticate in the sonnet that begins "Not from the stars do I my judgement pluck." "Of thee this I prognosticate," the Bard penned, "Thy end is truth's and beauty's doom and date."

Obtain (ub-TAYN)

1 : to gain or attain usually by planned action or effort 2 : to be generally recognized or established : prevail Obtain, which was adopted into English in the 15th century, comes to us via Anglo-French from the Latin obtinēre, meaning "to hold on to, possess." Obtinēre was itself formed by the combination of ob-, meaning "in the way," and the verb tenēre, meaning "to hold." In its earliest uses, obtain often implied a conquest or a successful victory in battle, but it is now used for any attainment through planned action or effort. The verb tenēre has incontestably prevailed in the English language, providing us with such common words as abstain, contain, detain, sustain, and, perhaps less obviously, the adjectives tenable and tenacious.

Presage (PRESS-ij)

1 : to give an omen or warning of : foreshadow 2 : foretell, predict 3 : to make or utter a prediction The verb presage was predated by a noun presage, meaning "omen." Both forms derive from the Latin prefix prae- combined with the adjective sagus, meaning "prophetic." Foretell, predict, forecast, prophesy, and presage all mean "to tell beforehand." Foretell applies to telling of a future event by any procedure or any source of information ("seers foretold the calamity"). Predict commonly implies inference from facts or accepted laws of nature ("astronomers predicted an eclipse"). Forecast implies anticipating eventualities and is usually concerned with probabilities ("the meteorologist forecasts snow"). Prophesy connotes inspired or mystic knowledge of the future ("the soothsayer prophesied a new messiah"). Presage may apply to suggesting a coming event or indicating its likelihood.

Rowel (ROWL)

1 : to goad with or as if with a pointed disk at the end of a spur 2 : vex, trouble If you've seen Western movies, you've seen rowels. The noun rowel names the circular, point-covered disk on the end of a spur that is used to urge powerful steeds to maximum speeds. But cowboys didn't invent rowels; knights in shining armor were sporting them even before the 12th century. English speakers of yore picked up the noun rowel from the Anglo-French roele, meaning "small wheel." It wasn't until the 16th century that rowel began to be used as a verb for the act of spurring a horse with a rowel. By the 19th century, rowel was being used as a verb for any process of prodding or goading that was as irritating as being poked in the side with a rowel.

Proliferate

1 : to grow or cause to grow by rapid production of new parts, cells, buds, or offspring 2 : to increase or cause to increase in number as if by proliferating : multiply Proliferate is a back-formation of proliferation. That means that proliferation came first (we borrowed it from French in the 18th century) and was later shortened to form the verb proliferate. Ultimately these terms come from Latin. The French adjective prolifère ("reproducing freely") comes from the Latin noun proles and the Latin combining form -fer. Proles means "offspring" or "descendants," and -fer means "bearing." Both of these Latin forms gave rise to numerous other English words. Prolific and proletarian ultimately come from proles; aquifer and words ending in -ferous have their roots in -fer.

Redound

1 : to have an effect for good or ill 2 : to become transferred or added : accrue 3 : rebound, reflect Although it looks and sounds like a number of similar words (including rebound, resound, abound, and redundant), redound is a distinct term. It developed from Middle French redunder, which in turn came from Latin redundare, meaning "to overflow." In its earliest known English uses in the late 1300s, redound meant "to overflow" or "to abound," but those senses are now considered archaic. In current use, redound is often followed by "to," and the effect can be positive or negative: "[It] probably would have redounded strongly to my disadvantage if I had pursued to completion my resolution...," writes Joseph Heller in his 1984 tragicomic novel God Knows.

Dissemble (dih-SEM-bul)

1 : to hide under a false appearance 2 : to put on the appearance of : simulate 3 : to put on a false appearance : to conceal facts, intentions, or feelings under some pretense We don't have anything to hide: dissemble is a synonym of disguise, cloak, and mask. Disguise implies a change in appearance or behavior that misleads by presenting a different apparent identity ("The prince disguised himself as a peasant"). Cloak suggests a means of hiding a movement or an intention ("The military operation was cloaked in secrecy"). Mask suggests some often obvious means of hiding or disguising something ("The customer smiled to mask her discontent"). Dissemble (from Latin dissimulare, meaning "to disguise or conceal") stresses the intent to deceive, especially about one's own thoughts or feelings, and often implies that the deception is something that would warrant censure if discovered.

Ferret (FAIR-ut)

1 : to hunt game with ferrets 2 : to drive out of a hiding place 3 : to find and bring to light by searching — usually used with out Since the 14th century, English speakers have used ferret as the name of a small domesticated animal of the weasel family. The word came to us by way of Anglo-French and can be traced back to Latin fur, meaning "thief." These days ferrets are often kept as pets, but previously they were used to hunt rabbits, rats, and other vermin, and to drive them from their underground burrows. By the 15th century, the verb ferret was being used of the action of hunting with ferrets. By the late 16th century, the verb had taken on figurative uses as well. Today, we most frequently encounter the verb ferret in the sense of "to find and bring to light by searching."

Coax (KOHKS)

1 : to influence or gently urge by caressing or flattering : wheedle 2 : to draw, gain, or persuade by means of gentle urging or flattery 3 : to manipulate with great perseverance and usually with considerable effort toward a desired state or activity In the days of yore, if you made a "cokes" of someone, you made a fool of them. Cokes—a now-obsolete word for "fool"—is believed to be the source of the verb coax, which was first used in the 16th century (with the spelling cokes) to mean "to make a fool of." Soon, the verb also took on the kinder meaning of "to make a pet of." As might be expected, the act of "cokesing" was sometimes done for personal gain. By the 17th century, the word was being used in today's senses that refer to influencing or persuading people by kind acts or words. By the 19th century, the spelling cokes had fallen out of use, along with the meanings "to make a fool of" and "to make a pet of."

Mangle

1 : to injure with deep disfiguring wounds by cutting, tearing, or crushing 2 : to spoil, injure, or make incoherent especially through ineptitude Besides the "mutilate" verb mangle, English has the noun mangle ("a machine for ironing laundry by passing it between heated rollers") and its related verb ("to press or smooth with a mangle"). There's no etymological relationship, however, between that pair and the mangle that means "to mutilate or bungle." The ironing-related homographs come from Dutch and ultimately from a Latin word that also gave English mangonel, the name for a military engine used to hurl missiles. The injury-related mangle comes from Anglo-French and may be a relation of the words maim and mayhem via Anglo-French mahaigner, "to maim."

Indoctrinate

1 : to instruct especially in fundamentals or rudiments : teach 2 : to imbue with a usually partisan or sectarian opinion, point of view, or principle Indoctrinate simply means "brainwash" to many people. But its meaning isn't always so negative. When this verb first appeared in English in the 17th century, it simply meant "to teach"—a meaning that followed logically from its Latin root. The "doc" in the middle of indoctrinate derives from the Latin verb docēre, which also means "to teach." Other offspring of docēre include docent (referring to a college professor or a museum guide), docile, doctor, doctrine, and document. It was not until the 19th century that indoctrinate began to see regular use in the sense of causing someone to absorb and take on certain opinions or principles.

Invigilate (in-VIJ-uh-layt)

1 : to keep watch; especially : to supervise students at an examination 2 : supervise, monitor Keep your eyes open and you're sure to spot a few relatives of today's word. Invigilate is a descendant of the Latin verb vigilare, meaning "to stay awake." As you may have guessed, vigilare is the ancestor of our adjective vigilant ("alertly watchful"), and it also gives us reveille ("a signal to wake up in the morning," via French réveillez) and surveillance ("close watch, supervision," via French surveiller). Invigilate has been a member of the English language since the mid-16th century.

Assuage

1 : to lessen the intensity of (something that pains or distresses) : ease 2 : to make quiet : pacify 3 : to put an end to by satisfying : appease, quench Scholars assume that the word assuage derives from assuaviare, a Vulgar Latin term that combines the prefix ad- ("to" or "toward") and the Latin suavis, meaning "sweet," "pleasant," or "agreeable." (Suavis is also the source of the adjective suave.) To assuage is to sweeten or make agreeable or tolerable, and it is far from the only English word for relieving or softening something difficult. Others include allay, alleviate, and mitigate. Allay implies an effective calming or soothing of fears or alarms, while alleviate implies temporary or partial lessening of pain or distress. Mitigate suggests moderating or countering the force or intensity of something painful.

Ransack

1 : to look through thoroughly in often a rough way 2 : to search through and steal from in a forceful and damaging way : plunder Ransack carries the image of a house being roughly disarranged, as might happen when you are frantically searching for something. This is appropriate given the word's origin. Ransack derives, via Middle English ransaken, from Old Norse rannsaka; the rann in rannsaka means "house." The second half of rannsaka is related to an Old English word, sēcan, meaning "to seek." But our modern use of the word isn't restricted to houses. You can ransack a drawer, a suitcase, or even the contents of a book (for information). A now-obsolete frequentative form of ransack, ransackle, gave us our adjective ramshackle.

Promulgates (PRAH-mul-gayt)

1 : to make (an idea, belief, etc.) known to many people by open declaration : proclaim 2 a : to make known or public the terms of (a proposed law) b : to put (a law or rule) into action or force The origin of promulgate is a bit murky, or perhaps we should say "milky." It comes from Latin promulgatus, which in turn derives from pro-, meaning "forward," and -mulgare, a form that is probably related to the verb mulgēre, meaning "to milk" or "to extract." Mulgēre is an ancestor of the English word emulsion ("mixture of mutually insoluble liquids"), and it is also related to the Old English word that became milk itself. Like its synonyms declare, announce, and proclaim, promulgate means "to make known publicly." It particularly implies the proclaiming of a dogma, doctrine, or law.

Sashay (sa-SHAY)

1 : to make a chassé 2 a : walk, glide, go b : to strut or move about in an ostentatious or conspicuous manner c : to proceed or move in a diagonal or sideways manner Orthographically, there's no denying that chassé is French. It is from the French past participle of chasser, meaning "to chase," and it danced into English in the beginning of the 19th century. As the word gained popularity in America, people often had difficulty pronouncing and transcribing its French rhythms. It wasn't long before sashay had begun to appear in print in American sources. Authors such as Mark Twain, Zora Neale Hurston, and John Updike have all since put their names on the word's dance card and have enjoyed the liveliness and attitude sashay adds to descriptions of movement. They and many, many others have helped sashay slide away from its French dance origins to strut its stuff in descriptions of various walks and moves.

Pungle (PUNG-gul)

1 : to make a payment or contribution of (money) — usually used with up 2 : pay, contribute — usually used with up Pungle is from the Spanish word póngale, meaning "put it down," which itself is from the verb poner, meaning "to put" or "to place," and, more specifically, "to wager" or "to bet." The earliest uses of pungle are from the mid-1800s and are in reference to anteing up in games of chance. It did not take long for the word to be used in other contexts. We find it, for example, in Mark Twain's Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884) when Huck's father says: "I'll make [Judge Thatcher] pungle, too, or I'll know the reason why." Nowadays, pungle is mainly used in the western part of the United States.

Bivouac (BIV-uh-wak)

1 : to make a temporary encampment under little or no shelter 2 : to take shelter often temporarily 3 : to provide temporary quarters for In his 1841 dictionary, Noah Webster observed bivouac to be a French borrowing having military origins. He defined the noun bivouac as "the guard or watch of a whole army, as in cases of great danger of surprise or attack" and the verb as "to watch or be on guard, as a whole army." The French word is derived from the Low German word biwacht, which translates to "by guard." Germans used the word specifically for a patrol of citizens who assisted the town watch at night. Today, bivouac has less to do with guarding and patrolling than it does with taking shelter.

Atone (uh-TOHN)

1 : to make amends : to provide or serve as reparation or compensation for something bad or unwelcome — usually + for 2 : to make reparation or supply satisfaction for : expiate — used in the passive voice with for Atone comes to us from the combination in Middle English of at and on, the latter of which is an old variant of one. Together they meant "in harmony." (In current English, we use "at one" with a similar suggestion of harmony in such phrases as "at one with nature.") When it first entered English, atone meant "to reconcile" and suggested the restoration of a peaceful and harmonious state between people or groups. These days the verb specifically implies addressing the damage (or disharmony) caused by one's own behavior.

Stipulate (STIP-yuh-layt)

1 : to make an agreement or covenant to do or forbear something : contract 2 : to demand an express term in an agreement 3 : to specify as a condition or requirement (as of an agreement or offer) 4 : to give a guarantee of Like many terms used in the legal profession, stipulate has its roots in Latin. It derives from stipulatus, the past participle of stipulari, a verb meaning "to demand a guarantee (from a prospective debtor)." Stipulate has been a part of the English language since the 17th century. In Roman law, oral contracts were deemed valid only if they followed a proper question-and-answer format; stipulate was sometimes used specifically of this same process of contract making, though it also could be used more generally for any means of making a contract or agreement. The "to specify as a condition or requirement" meaning of stipulate also dates to the 17th century, and is the sense of the word most often encountered in current use.

Aggrandize (uh-GRAN-dyze)

1 : to make great or greater : increase, enlarge 2 : to make appear great or greater : praise highly 3 : to enhance the power, wealth, position, or reputation of Aggrandize has enhanced the English vocabulary since the early 17th century. English speakers adapted agrandiss-, the stem of the French verb agrandir, to form aggrandize, and later used the French form agrandissement as the basis of the noun aggrandizement. (The root of agrandiss- is Latin; it comes from grandis, meaning "large, great.") Nowadays, both noun and verb are regularly paired (somewhat disparagingly) with the prefix self- to refer to individuals bent on glorifying themselves, as sports writer Alan Shipnuck demonstrates in a 2015 Sports Illustrated article, writing "golf is not a sport that smiles upon the self-aggrandizing."

Founder

1 : to make or become disabled or lame 2 : to give way : collapse 3 : to become submerged : sink 4 : to come to grief : fail Founder comes from Middle English foundren, meaning "to send to the bottom" or "collapse." That word came from the Middle French verb fondrer, and ultimately from the Latin noun fundus, meaning "bottom." When something founders, it usually hits the bottom in one sense or another. A foundering horse—that is, a disabled one—is likely to collapse to the ground. When a ship founders, it sinks to the bottom of the sea. Founder has a broader, figurative sense, too—if someone's marriage or career is foundering, it isn't doing well and is therefore headed downward.

Infantilize (IN-fun-tye-lyze)

1 : to make or keep infantile 2 : to treat as if infantile Infantilize is just a baby, relatively speaking. It first saw the light of day in the early 1900s, when social scientists started using the term to discuss the ways in which treating humans as helpless can prolong or encourage their dependency on others. The adjective infantile, which gave birth to infantilize, is far more mature: it dates to the 17th century. Infantile sometimes literally means "relating to infants"—that is, to children in the first year of life—but it also has a broader meaning. If you chide someone for their infantile behavior, you rebuke the person for acting immaturely or childishly.

Scarify (SKAIR-uh-fye)

1 : to make scratches or small cuts in (something, such as the skin) 2 : to lacerate the feelings of 3 : to break up, loosen, or roughen the surface of (something, such as a field or road) 4 : to cut or soften the wall of (a hard seed) to hasten germination You get two words for the price of one with scarify. The first scarify appeared in English in the 15th century with the meaning "to make scratches or cuts in" and later developed a figurative application of "cutting" someone emotionally. This word is ultimately derived from a Greek verb meaning "to scratch an outline." The second homograph turned up in the late 18th century and gained currency by the 20th century. This scarify was formed by combining scare with -ify, possibly as a combination of scare and terrify, and it predictably means "to scare or frighten."

Circumvent

1 : to manage to get around especially by ingenuity or stratagem 2 a : to hem in b : to make a circuit around If you've ever felt as if someone was circling around the rules, you have an idea of the origins of circumvent—it derives from the Latin circum, meaning "circle," and ventus, the past participle of the Latin verb venire, meaning "to come." The earliest uses of circumvent referred to a tactic of hunting or warfare in which the quarry or enemy was encircled and captured. Today, however, circumvent more often suggests avoidance than entrapment; it typically means to "get around" someone or something, as in our example sentences.

Writhe (RYTHE)

1 : to move or proceed with twists and turns 2 : to twist from or as if from pain or struggling 3 : to suffer keenly Writhe wound its way into English from the Old English verb wrīthan ("to twist") and is akin to the Old English verb wrigian ("to turn or go"). Wrigian gave us our words wriggle, awry, and wry. When something wriggles, it twists from side to side with quick movements, like an earthworm. When something goes awry, it twists or winds off course, often toward catastrophe. Wry can mean "bent or twisted" but usually implies clever, ironic humor. These days, writhe often suggests the physical contortions one makes when enduring crippling pain or when trying to extract oneself from a tight grasp (as an animal from a predator's claws). Alternatively, it can imply an emotionally wrenching feeling (as of grief or fear) from which one seeks relief.

Grift (GRIFT)

1 : to obtain (money) illicitly (as in a confidence game) 2 : to acquire money or property illicitly Grift was born in the argot of the underworld, a realm in which a "grifter" might be a pickpocket, a crooked gambler, or a confidence man—any criminal who relied on skill and wits rather than physical violence—and to be "on the grift" was to make a living by stings and clever thefts. Grift may have evolved from graft, a slightly older word meaning "to acquire dishonestly," but its exact origins are uncertain. We do know that the verb grift first finagled its way into print in the early 20th century, as demonstrated in George Bronson-Howard's 1915 novel God's Man, where it appears in gerund form: "Grifting ain't what it used to be. Fourteenth Street's got protection down to a system—a regular underworld tariff on larceny."

Sublimate (SUB-luh-mayt)

1 : to pass or cause to pass directly from the solid to the vapor state 2 : to divert the expression of (an instinctual desire or impulse) from its unacceptable form to one that is considered more socially or culturally acceptable To sublimate is to change the form, but not the essence. Physically speaking, it means to transform solid to vapor; psychologically, it means changing the outlet, or means, of expression from something base and inappropriate to something more positive or acceptable. The word sublimate comes from the Latin verb sublimare, which means "to lift up" or "to raise" and which is also the ancestor of our sublime. Sublimate itself once meant "to elevate to a place of dignity or honor" or "to give a more elevated character to," but these meanings are now obsolete.

Amortize; Amortization

1 : to pay off (an obligation, such as a mortgage) gradually usually by periodic payments of principal and interest or by payments to a sinking fund 2 : to gradually reduce or write off the cost or value of (something, such as an asset) When you amortize a loan, you "kill it off" gradually by paying it down in installments. This is reflected in the word's etymology. Amortize derives via Middle English and Anglo-French from Vulgar Latin admortire, meaning "to kill." The Latin noun mors ("death") is a root of admortire; it is related to our word murder, and it also gave us a word naming a kind of loan that is usually amortized: mortgage. Amortize carries a different meaning in the field of corporate finance, where it means to depreciate the cost or value of an asset (as, for example, to reduce interest revenue on that asset for tax purposes).

Connive (kuh-NYVE)

1 : to pretend ignorance of or fail to take action against something one ought to oppose 2 a : to be indulgent or in secret sympathy : wink b : to cooperate secretly or have a secret understanding 3 : conspire, intrigue Connive may not seem like a troublesome term, but it was to Wilson Follett, a usage critic who lamented that the word "was undone during the Second World War, when restless spirits felt the need of a new synonym for plotting, bribing, spying, conspiring, engineering a coup, preparing a secret attack." Follett thought connive should only mean "to wink at" or "to pretend ignorance." Those senses are closer to the Latin ancestor of the word: connive comes from the Latin connivēre, which means "to close the eyes" and which is descended from -nivēre, a form akin to the Latin verb nictare, meaning "to wink." But many English speakers disagreed, and the "conspire" sense is now the word's most widely used meaning.

Reverberate

1 : to reflect or become reflected 2 : to repel or become driven back 3 : to continue in or as if in a series of echoes : resound The letter sequence "v-e-r-b" in reverberate might make you think at first of such word-related brethren as proverb, verbal, and verbose, all of which derive from the Latin noun verbum, meaning "word." In fact, reverberate comes from a much different source: the Latin verb verberare, meaning "to whip, beat, or lash," which is related to the noun verber, meaning "rod." Reverberate entered the English language in the 15th century, and one of its early meanings was "to beat, drive, or cast back." By the early 1600s, it began to appear in contexts associated with sound that repeats or returns the way an echo does.

Politesse (pah-lih-TESS)

: formal politeness : decorousness Nowadays, no one refers to a "polite" looking glass or houses "polite" and in good repair, but polite (or polit or polyt, as it was spelled in Middle English) originally meant simply "polished" or "clean." By the early 1600s, polite was being used of polished and refined people, and politeness had been penned to name the shining quality of such people. Politesse (a French borrowing) debuted in the late 17th century. All three words stem from Latin polire, which means "to polish" (and which is, by way of the Anglo-French stem poliss-, an ancestor of the English polish). Today we tend to use politeness for everyday good manners and reserve politesse for more formal courtesies.

Wangled (WANG-gul)

1 : to resort to trickery 2 : to adjust or manipulate for personal or fraudulent ends 3 : to make or get by devious means : finagle Wangle, a verb of uncertain origin, has been used in its newest sense, "to obtain by sly methods," since at least the early 20th century. Occasionally, one sees wrangle used similarly, as in "wrangle a huge salary," but more typically it means "to argue or engage in controversy." Did the "obtain" sense of wrangle evolve through confusion with wangle? Not exactly. Wrangle was used with the meaning "to obtain by arguing or bargaining" since the early 17th century, long before wangle appeared in the language. The sense had all but disappeared until recent decades, however, and its revival may very well have been influenced by wangle. The "obtain" sense of wangle is currently more common than that use of wrangle, but both are considered standard.

Snivel

1 : to run at the nose 2 : to snuff mucus up the nose audibly : snuffle 3 : to cry or whine with snuffling 4 : to speak or act in a whining, sniffling, tearful, or weakly emotional manner There's never been anything pretty about sniveling. Snivel, which originally meant simply "to have a runny nose," was probably snyflan in Old English. It's likely related to sniffle, not surprisingly, and also to an Old English word for mucus, snofl. It's even related to the Middle Dutch word for a cold, snof, and the Old Norse word for "snout," which is snoppa. There's also a connection to nan, a Greek verb meaning "flow." Nowadays, we mostly use snivel as we have since the 1600s: to refer to self-pitying whining, whether or not such sniveling is accompanied by unchecked nasal flow.

Irrupt (ih-RUPT)

1 : to rush in forcibly or violently 2 : (of a natural population) to undergo a sudden upsurge in numbers especially when natural ecological balances and checks are disturbed 3 : to become active or violent especially suddenly : erupt Irrupt and erupt have existed side-by-side since the former entered the English language in the 1800s (erupt had been a part of the language for over two centuries at that point). Both are descendants of the Latin verb rumpere, which means "to break," but irrupt has affixed to it the prefix ir- (in the sense "into") while erupt begins with the prefix e- (meaning "out"). So "to irrupt" was originally to rush in, and "to erupt" was to burst out. But it's sometimes hard to distinguish the precise direction of a violent rush, and irrupt came to be used as a synonym of erupt in the senses "to become active or violent especially suddenly" and "to break forth."

Whipsaw (WIP-saw)

1 : to saw with a whipsaw 2 : to beset or victimize in two opposite ways at once, by two-phase operation, or by the collusive action of two opponents A whipsaw is a type of hand-powered saw worked by two people, one of whom stands on or above the log being sawed and the other below it, usually in a pit. The tool dates back to the 15th century, but it was not until the 19th century that anyone thought to use the saw's name figuratively to describe situations in which someone or something is doubly "cut," or hurt. Today, the word is commonly used when discussing financial crises or losses as well as ideological changes (as in government policy) that might "cut."

Reprove

1 : to scold or correct usually gently or with kindly intent 2 : to express disapproval of : censure 3 : to express rebuke or reproof Reprove, rebuke, reprimand, admonish, reproach, and chide all mean to criticize. Reprove implies an often kindly intent to correct a fault. Rebuke suggests a sharp or stern criticism (as in "In the interview, the candidate sternly rebuked the agendas of those running against her"). Reprimand implies a severe, formal, often public or official rebuke ("He was reprimanded before the ethics committee"). Admonish suggests earnest or friendly warning and counsel ("The assistant manager was admonished to control expenses"). Reproach and chide suggest displeasure or disappointment expressed in mild scolding ("The teacher reproached the student for tardiness" and "The child was chided by his nana for untidiness"). Incidentally, the resemblance of reprove to prove is not coincidental—both words can be traced back to the Latin probare ("to test" or "to prove").

Cloister (KLOY-ster)

1 : to seclude from the world in or as if in a cloister 2 : to surround with a cloister Cloister first entered the English language as a noun in the 13th century; it referred then (as it still does) to a convent or monastery. More than three centuries later, English speakers began using the verb cloister to mean "to seclude in or as if in a cloister." Today, the noun can also refer to the monastic life or to a covered and usually arched passage along or around a court. You may also encounter cloistered with the meaning "surrounded with a covered passage," as in "cloistered gardens." Cloister ultimately derives from the Latin verb claudere, meaning "to close." Other words that can be traced back to the prolific claudere include close, conclude, exclude, include, preclude, seclude, and recluse.

Decimate (DESS-uh-mayt)

1 : to select by lot and kill every tenth man of 2 : to exact a tax of 10 percent from 3 a : to reduce drastically especially in number b : to cause great destruction or harm to The connection between decimate and the number ten harks back to a brutal practice of the army of ancient Rome. A unit that was guilty of a severe crime (such as mutiny) was punished by the selection and execution of one-tenth of its soldiers, thereby scaring the remaining nine-tenths into obedience. It's no surprise that the word for this practice came from Latin decem, meaning "ten." From this root we also get our words decimal and decade, as well as December, so named because it was originally the tenth month of the calendar before the addition of January and February. In its extended uses, decimate strayed from its "tenth" meaning and nowadays refers to the act of destroying or damaging a great quantity or large part of something.

Dissociate

1 : to separate from association or union with another 2 : disunite; specifically : to subject to chemical dissociation 3 : to undergo dissociation 4 : to mutate especially reversibly Dissociate and its synonym disassociate can both mean "to separate from association or union with another." Associate is from Latin ad-, meaning "to," and sociare, meaning "to join." Dis- in this case means "do the opposite of," so both dissociate and disassociate indicate severing that which is united. Some commentators, however, argue that disassociate is illogical because it indicates separating and uniting simultaneously. Dissociate is slightly older, appearing in the late 16th century, whereas early evidence of disassociate is found in the beginning decade of the next century. Dissociate is recommended by a number of commentators on the basis that it is shorter, which it is by a grand total of two letters—not the firmest ground for an endorsement. Both words are in current good use, but disassociate is used more often in the U.S.

Sequester (sih-KWESS-ter)

1 : to set apart : segregate 2 : to seize by authority of a writ Sequester first appeared in English in the 14th century. The word derives from Latin sequestrare ("to hand over to a trustee") and ultimately from secus ("beside," "otherwise"), which is akin to Latin sequi ("to follow"). In this relationship, we can trace links to words such as sequel, sequence, consequence, and subsequent, all of which convey a meaning of one thing following another. These days, we most frequently hear sequester used in legal contexts, as juries are sometimes sequestered for the safety of their members or to prevent the influence of outside sources on a verdict. In a different sense, it is possible to sequester property in certain legal situations.

Kowtow (KOW-tow)

1 : to show obsequious deference : fawn 2 : to kneel and touch the forehead to the ground in token of homage, worship, or deep respect Kowtow originated as a noun referring to the act of kneeling and touching one's head to the ground as a salute or act of worship to a revered authority. In traditional China this ritual was performed by commoners making requests to the local magistrate, by the emperor to the shrine of Confucius, or by foreign representatives appearing before the emperor to establish trade relations. (In the late 18th century, some Western nations resisted performing the ritual, which acknowledged the Chinese emperor as the "son of heaven.") The word kowtow derives from Chinese koutou, formed by combining the verb kou ("to knock") with the noun tou ("head").

Pontificate (pahn-TIF-uh-kayt)

1 : to speak or express opinions in a pompous or dogmatic way 2 a : to officiate as a pontiff b : to celebrate pontifical mass In ancient Rome, the pontifices were powerful priests who administered the part of civil law that regulated relationships with the deities recognized by the state. Their name, pontifex, derives from the Latin words pons, meaning "bridge," and facere, meaning "to make," and some think it may have developed because the group was associated with a sacred bridge over the river Tiber (although there is no proof of that). With the rise of Catholicism, the title pontifex was transferred to the Pope and to Catholic bishops. Pontificate derives from pontifex, and in its earliest English uses it referred to things associated with such prelates. By the late 1800s, pontificate was also being used derisively for individuals who spoke as if they had the authority of an ecclesiastic.

Paste

1 : to strike hard at 2 : to beat or defeat soundly We're not talking about adhesives here: the paste of interest here came to be as an alteration of the word baste, which means "to beat severely or soundly." (This baste is unrelated to the two distinct baste homographs that mean "to sew with long stitches" and "to moisten while cooking.") The exact origin of baste is uncertain, but it probably comes from the Old Norse word beysta, meaning "to bruise, thrash, or flog." Baste was first seen in the 16th century, but paste didn't turn up in print until the mid-19th century, and it only recently acquired its "defeat" sense. Baste is now less popular than paste, though its relative lambaste ("to beat" or "to censure") is prevalent.

Smite; Smitten

1 : to strike sharply or heavily especially with the hand or an implement [a tool, utensil, or other piece of equipment, especially as used for a particular purpose. "agricultural implements"] held in the hand 2 a : to kill or severely injure by so striking b : to attack or afflict suddenly and injuriously 3 : to cause to strike 4 : to affect as if by striking 5 : captivate, take 6. (Smitten) struck with a powerful feeling; inspired with love Today's word has been part of the English language for a very long time; the earliest documented written use dates to the 12th century. Smite can be traced back to the Old English smītan, meaning "to smear or defile." Smītan is akin to the Scottish word smit, meaning "to stain, contaminate, or infect," as well as to the Old High German bismīzan, "to defile." In addition to its "strike" and "attack" senses, smite has a softer side. As of the mid-17th century, it can mean "to captivate or take"—a sense that is frequently used in the past participle in such contexts as "smitten by her beauty" or "smitten with him" (meaning "in love with him"). Its past tense is smote.

Rescind

1 : to take away : remove 2 a : take back, cancel b : to abrogate (a contract) and restore the parties to the positions they would have occupied had there been no contract 3 : to make void by action of the enacting authority or a superior authority : repeal Rescind and the lesser-known words exscind and prescind all come from the Latin verb scindere, which means "to cut" or "to split." Rescind was adapted from its Latin predecessor rescindere in the 16th century, and prescind (from praescindere) and exscind (from exscindere) followed in the next century. Exscind means "to cut off" or "to excise," and prescind means "to withdraw one's attention," but of the three borrowings, only rescind established itself as a common English term. Today, rescind is most often heard in contexts having to do with someone rescinding a contract or an offer, or with a legislative body rescinding a law.

Chivy (CHIV-ee)

1 : to tease or annoy with persistent petty attacks 2 : to move or obtain by small maneuvers Chivy, which is also spelled chivvy, became established in our language in the 19th century and, at first, meant "to harass or chase." Early usage examples are of people chivying a chicken around to catch it and of a person chivying around food that is frying. The verb comes from a British noun chivy meaning "chase" or "hunt." That chivy is believed to be derived from Chevy Chase—a term for "chase" or "confusion" that is taken from the name of a ballad describing the 1388 battle of Otterburn between the Scottish and English. (A chase in this context is an unenclosed tract of land that is used as a game preserve.)

Flout

1 : to treat with contemptuous disregard : scorn 2 : to indulge in scornful behavior If you flout a rule or societal norm, you ignore it without hiding what you're doing, or showing fear or shame. The similar-sounding word flaunt is sometimes used in the same way, though that word's older and more common meaning is "to display ostentatiously." Critics have been complaining about the confusion of these two words since the early 1900s, but use of flaunt with the meaning "to treat with contemptuous disregard" is found in even polished, edited writing, and so that meaning is included in our and other dictionaries as an established use of the word. Nonetheless, you may want to avoid it: there are still many who judge harshly those who fail to keep these two words distinct.

Whelm (WELM)

1 : to turn (something, such as a dish or vessel) upside down usually to cover something : to cover or engulf completely with usually disastrous effect 2 : to overcome in thought or feeling : overwhelm 3 : to pass or go over something so as to bury or submerge it In the film comedy Ten Things I Hate About You (1999), the character Chastity Church asks, "I know you can be underwhelmed and you can be overwhelmed, but can you ever just be whelmed?" The answer, Chastity, is yes. Contemporary writers sometimes use whelm to denote a middle stage between underwhelm and overwhelm. But that's not how whelm has traditionally been used. Whelm and overwhelm have been with us since Middle English (when they were whelmen and overwhelmen), and throughout the years their meanings have largely overlapped. Both words early on meant "to overturn," for example, and both have also come to mean "to overpower in thought or feeling." After folks started using a third word, underwhelmed, for "unimpressed," whelmed began popping up with the meaning "moderately impressed."

Hark back

1 : to turn back to an earlier topic or circumstance 2 : to go back to something as an origin or source Hark, a very old word meaning "to listen," was used as a cry in hunting. The master of the hunt might cry "Hark! Forward!" or "Hark! Back!" The cries became set phrases, both as nouns and verbs. Thus, a "hark back" was a retracing of a route by dogs and hunters, and to "hark back" was to turn back along the path. From its use in hunting, the verb soon acquired its current figurative meanings. In time, the variants "hearken back" and "harken back" were called, and—like hark—hearken and harken can mean "to listen." Harken, itself, is now used alone to mean "hark back."

Advert (ad-VERT)

1 : to turn the mind or attention — used with to 2 : to call attention in the course of speaking or writing : make reference — used with to You may be familiar with the noun advert, which is used, especially in British sources, as a shortened form of advertisement. That's one way to use advert, but it has also been used as a verb in English since the 15th century. There's a hint about the origin of the verb in the idea of "turning" the mind or attention to something; the word derives via Anglo-French from the Latin verb advertere, which in turn comes from Latin vertere, meaning "to turn." Vertere is the ancestor of a number of words in English, including controversy, divert, invert, revert, and even versatile. In addition, we'd like to turn your attention to one particular vertere descendant: avert, meaning "to avoid." Be careful to avoid mixing this one up with advert.

Envisage (in-VIZ-ij)

1 : to view or regard in a certain way 2 : to have a mental picture of especially in advance of realization Envisage has been part of the English language since the 17th century. It was sometimes used with the sense of "to meet squarely" or "to confront" (visage means "face" so the word suggests face-to-face encounters); however, that sense is now archaic and the word is primarily used in senses that involve having a particular conception or mental picture of something (visage also means "appearance" or "aspect"). In the early 20th century, some usage commentators began deriding envisage for reasons not entirely clear, declaring it "undesirable." Today, time and usage have won out, and envisage is widely used and accepted, though it is slightly formal in tone. Its near twin envision ("to picture to oneself"), which has been with us since the 19th century, is interchangeable with envisage in many contexts and is slightly less formal.

Misbegotten (miss-bih-GAH-tun)

1 : unlawfully conceived : illegitimate 2 a : having a disreputable or improper origin : ill-conceived b : contemptible, deformed In the beginning, there was the Old English begiten, and begiten begot the Middle English begotyn, and begotyn begot the modern English begotten, and from thence sprung misbegotten. That description may be a bit flowery, but it accurately traces the path that led to misbegotten. All of the Old English and Middle English ancestors listed above basically meant the same thing as the modern begotten, the past participle of beget, meaning "to father" or "to produce as an effect or outgrowth." That linguistic line brought forth misbegotten by adding the prefix mis- (meaning "wrong," "bad," or "not") in the mid-1500s.

Grudging

1 : unwilling, reluctant 2 : done, given, or allowed unwillingly, reluctantly, or sparingly In the 15th century, English jurist Sir John Fortescue observed, "Somme . . . obtayne gretter rewardis than thei have disserved, and yit grugge, seying they have [too] litill." Fortescue's grugge (an early spelling of the verb grudge) meant "to grumble and complain," just like its Middle English forerunner, grucchen, and the Anglo-French word grucer, which gave rise to the English forms. English speakers had adopted the "complain" sense of grudge by the late 13th century, and a century later they had added the extended sense "to give reluctantly." That second sense may have developed because people associated grudge with the related word begrudge (meaning "to give reluctantly," as in "I begrudged him a second chance.") Grudging, which developed from grudge, made its English debut in the 1530s.

Deracinate (dee-RASS-uh-nayt)

1 : uproot 2 : to remove or separate from a native environment or culture; especially : to remove the racial or ethnic characteristics or influences from There is a hint about the roots of deracinate in its first definition. Deracinate was borrowed into English in the late 16th century from Middle French and can be traced back to the Latin word radix, meaning "root." Although deracinate began life referring to literal plant roots, it quickly took on a second, metaphorical, meaning suggesting removal of anyone or anything from native roots or culture. Other offspring of radix include eradicate ("to pull up by the roots" or "to do away with as completely as if by pulling up by the roots") and radish (the name for a crisp, edible root). Though the second sense of deracinate mentions racial characteristics and influence, the words racial and race derive from razza, an Italian word of uncertain origin.

Periphrasis (puh-RIFF-ruh-sis)

1 : use of a longer phrasing in place of a possible shorter form of expression 2 : an instance of periphrasis It's easy enough to point out the origins of periphrasis: the word was borrowed into English in the early 16th century via Latin from Greek periphrazein, which in turn comes from the prefix peri-, meaning "all around," and the verb phrazein, "to point out." Two common descendants of phrazein in English are phrase and paraphrase, the latter of which combines phrazein with the prefix para-, meaning "closely resembling." Another phrazein descendant is the less familiar word holophrasis, meaning "the expression of a complex of ideas in a single word or in a fixed phrase." (The prefix holo- can mean "completely.")

Feckless

1 : weak, ineffective 2 : worthless, irresponsible Someone feckless is lacking in feck. And what, you may ask, is feck? In Scots—our source of feckless—feck means "majority" or "effect." The term is ultimately an alteration of the Middle English effect. So something without feck is without effect, or ineffective. In the past, feckful (meaning "efficient, effective," "sturdy," or "powerful") made an occasional appearance. But in this case, the weak has outlived the strong: feckless is a commonly used English word, but feckful has fallen out of use.

Bodacious (boh-DAY-shuss)

1 Southern & Midland : outright, unmistakable 2 : remarkable, noteworthy 3 : sexy, voluptuous Some of our readers may know bodacious as a word that figured prominently in the lingo of the 1989 film Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure. Others may recall the term's frequent use in the long-running "Snuffy Smith" comic strip. Neither the creators of the comic strip nor the movie can claim to have coined bodacious, which began appearing in print during the 1800s, but both likely contributed to its popularity. The exact origin of the word is uncertain, but it was most likely influenced by bold and audacious, and it may be linked to boldacious, a term from British dialect meaning "brazen" or "impudent."

Hiatus

1 a : a break in or as if in a material object : gap b biology : a gap or passage in an anatomical part or organ 2 a : an interruption in time or continuity : break; especially : a period when something (as a program or activity) is suspended or interrupted b : the occurrence of two vowel sounds without pause or intervening consonantal sound Hiatus comes from hiare, a Latin verb meaning "to gape" or "to yawn," and first appeared in English in the middle of the 16th century. Originally, the word referred to a gap or opening in something, such as a cave opening in a cliff. In the 18th century, British novelist Laurence Sterne used the word humorously in his novel Tristram Shandy, writing of "the hiatus in Phutatorius's breeches." These days, hiatus is usually used in a temporal sense to refer to a pause or interruption (as in a song), or a period during which an activity is temporarily suspended (such as a hiatus from teaching).

Symposium (sim-POH-zee-um)

1 a : a convivial party (as after a banquet in ancient Greece) with music and conversation b : a social gathering at which there is free interchange of ideas 2 a : a formal meeting at which several specialists deliver short addresses on a topic or on related topics — compare colloquium b : a collection of opinions on a subject; especially : one published by a periodical c : discussion It was drinking more than thinking that drew people to the original symposia and that gave us the word symposium. The ancient Greeks would often follow a banquet with a drinking party they called a symposion. That name came from sympinein, a verb that combines pinein, meaning "to drink," with the prefix syn-, meaning "together." Originally, English speakers only used symposium to refer to such an ancient Greek party, but in the 18th century British gentlemen's clubs started using the word for gatherings in which intellectual conversation was fueled by drinking. By the end of the 18th century, symposium had gained the more sober sense we know today, describing meetings in which the focus is more on the exchange of ideas and less on imbibing.

Canard (kuh-NARD)

1 a : a false or unfounded report or story; especially : a fabricated report b : a groundless rumor or belief 2 : an airplane with horizontal stabilizing and control surfaces in front of supporting surfaces; also : a small airfoil in front of the wing of an aircraft that can increase the aircraft's performance In 16th-century France, vendre des canards à moitié was a colorful way of saying "to fool" or "to cheat." The French phrase means, literally, "to half-sell ducks." No one now knows just what was meant by "to half-sell"; the proverb was probably based on some story widely known at the time, but the details have not survived. At any rate, the expression led to the use of canard, the French word for "duck," with the meaning of "a hoax" or "a fabrication." English speakers adopted this canard in the mid-1800s. The aeronautical sense of canard, used from the early days of flying, comes from the stubby duck-like appearance of the aircraft.

Homage

1 a : a feudal ceremony by which a man acknowledges himself the vassal of a lord b : the relationship between a feudal lord and his vassal c : an act done or payment made in meeting the obligations due from a vassal to a feudal lord 2 a : expression of high regard : respect b : something that shows respect or attests to the worth or influence of another : tribute The root of homage is homo-, the Latin root meaning "man." In medieval times, a king's male subject could officially become the king's man (or vassal) by publicly announcing allegiance to the monarch in a formal ceremony. In that ritual, known as homage, the subject knelt and placed his hands between those of his lord, symbolically surrendering himself and putting himself at the lord's disposal and under his jurisdiction. A bond was thus forged between the two; the vassal's part was to revere and serve his lord, and the lord's role was to protect the vassal and his family.

Dram (DRAM)

1 a : a unit of avoirdupois weight equal to 1/16 ounce b : a unit of apothecaries' weight equal to 1/8 ounce c : a unit of liquid capacity equal to 1/8 fluid ounce 2 a : a small portion of something to drink b : a small amount In avoirdupois weight—that is, the system of weights commonly used in North America and the United Kingdom—a dram is equal to 1/16 ounce (1.772 grams). The word dram was borrowed from the Anglo-French and Late Latin word dragme, which was originally used for a silver coin used by the ancient Greeks (now known in English as the drachma) as well as for the coin's approximate weight. In the 16th century, English speakers began also using dram for a weight of fluid measure (also called a fluid dram) equal to 1/8 fluid ounce, and more loosely for any small portion of something to drink. Dram is also used figuratively for any small amount, in much the same way as grain and ounce.

Hobbyhorse (HAH-bee-horss)

1 a : a figure of a horse fastened about the waist in the morris dance b : a dancer wearing this figure 2 a : a stick having an imitation horse's head at one end that a child pretends to ride b : rocking horse c : a toy horse suspended by springs from a frame 3 a : a topic to which one constantly reverts b : a pursuit outside one's regular occupation engaged in especially for relaxation : hobby The hobbyhorse is a toy of yesteryear, dating back to a homespun era predating automobiles. In the 1400s, the word hobby could refer to a real-life horse of small or average size. It soon came to refer to the horse costume worn by a person participating in a morris dance or a burlesque performance, and then, later, to the child's toy. Another meaning of hobbyhorse was "a favorite pursuit or pastime"; our modern noun hobby (referring to an activity that one does for pleasure when not working) was formed by shortening this word. From pastime, the meaning of hobbyhorse was extended to "a subject to which one repeatedly returns." The sense is typically encountered as part of such phrases as "get on one's hobbyhorse" or "ride one's hobbyhorse."

Excursion (ik-SKER-zhun)

1 a : a going out or forth : expedition b (1) : a usually brief pleasure trip (2) : a trip at special reduced rates 2 : deviation from a direct, definite, or proper course; especially : digression 3 : a movement outward and back or from a mean position or axis; also : the distance traversed : amplitude In Latin, the prefix ex- means "out of" and the verb currere means "to run." When the two are put together, they form the verb excurrere, literally "to run out" or "to extend." Excurrere gave rise not only to excursion but also to excurrent (an adjective for things having channels or currents that run outward) and excursus (meaning "an appendix or digression that contains further exposition of some point or topic"). Other words deriving from currere include corridor, curriculum, and among newer words, parkour.

Marshal (MAR-shul)

1 a : a high official in the household of a medieval king, prince, or noble originally having charge of the cavalry but later usually in command of the military forces b : a person who arranges and directs the ceremonial aspects of a gathering 2 a : field marshal b : a general officer of the highest military rank 3 a : an officer having charge of prisoners b : a ministerial officer appointed for a judicial district (as of the U.S.) to execute the process of the courts and perform various duties similar to those of a sheriff c : a city law officer entrusted with particular duties d : the administrative head of a city police department or fire department Although most French words are derived from Latin, a few—among them marshal—are Germanic. In the last centuries of the Roman Empire, the Germanic Franks occupied what is now France and left behind a substantial linguistic legacy, including what became medieval French mareschal. Mareschal came from a Frankish compound noun corresponding to Old High German marahscal, composed of marah, meaning "horse" (Old English mearh, with a feminine form mere, whence English mare), and scalc, meaning "servant" (Old English scealc). The original marshal was a servant in charge of horses, but by the time the word was borrowed from French into English in the 14th century, it referred primarily to a high royal official.

Shard (SHAHRD)

1 a : a piece or fragment of a brittle substance; broadly : a small piece or part : scrap b : shell, scale; especially : elytron 2 : a fragment of a pottery vessel found on sites and in refuse deposits where pottery-making peoples have lived 3 : highly angular curved glass fragments of tuffaceous sediment Shard dates back to Old English (where it was spelled sceard), and it is related to the Old English word scieran, meaning "to cut." English speakers have adopted the modernized shard spelling for most uses, but archeologists prefer to spell the word sherd when referring to the ancient fragments of pottery they unearth. Other specialized uses of the word shard include a sense referring to the thick front wings in beetles that protect a hind pair of wings and another sense used for the highly angular curved glass fragments of a type of volcanic rock formation.

Despot (DESS-putt)

1 a : a ruler with absolute power and authority b : one exercising power tyrannically : a person exercising absolute power in a brutal or oppressive way 2 a : a Byzantine emperor or prince b Christianity : a bishop or patriarch of the Eastern Orthodox Church c : an Italian hereditary prince or military leader during the Renaissance In his 1755 dictionary, Samuel Johnson said of despot, "the word is not in use, except as applied to some Dacian prince; as the despot of Servia." Indeed at that time, the word was mainly used to identify some very specific rulers or religious officials, and the title was an honorable one: it comes from a Greek word meaning "lord" or "master" and was originally applied to deities. That situation changed toward the end of the century, perhaps because French Revolutionists, who were said to have been "very liberal in conferring this title," considered all sovereigns to be tyrannical. When democracy became all the rage, despot came to be used most often for any ruler who wielded absolute and often contemptuous and oppressive power.

Shindig (SHIN-dig)

1 a : a social gathering with dancing b : a usually large or lavish party 2 : fracas, uproar At a glance, shindig appears to combine shin and dig, and thus might seem to suggest a painful kick to the leg—especially when you know that one of the first senses of shindig in English refers to a gathering at which people dance. It is more likely, however, that shindig is an alteration of shindy, which is itself the alteration of another word, shinny, used of a variation of hockey that is played with a curved stick and a ball or block of wood. It's not entirely clear how the game of shinny gave shindy its first meaning (the "social gathering with dancing" meaning that is also the original meaning of shindig) but shinny remains the most likely origin.

Glitch

1 a : a usually minor malfunction; also : an unexpected defect, fault, flaw, or imperfection b : a minor problem that causes a temporary setback : snag 2 : a false or spurious electronic signal There's a glitch in the etymology of glitch—the origins of the word are not known for sure, though it may derive from the Yiddish glitsh, meaning "slippery place." Glitch started showing up in print in English in the mid-20th century in reference to a brief unexpected surge of electrical current. The term was new enough in 1962 that the astronaut John Glenn, writing in the book Into Orbit, felt the need to explain the term to his readers: "Literally, a glitch is a spike or change in voltage in an electrical circuit which takes place when the circuit suddenly has a new load put on it." Today, you don't have to be an astronaut to be familiar with the word glitch, which can be used of any minor malfunction or snag.

Volatile (VAH-luh-tul)

1 a : characterized by or subject to rapid or unexpected change b : unable to hold the attention fixed because of an inherent lightness or fickleness of disposition 2 a : tending to erupt into violence : explosive b : easily aroused c : lighthearted, lively 3 : readily vaporizable at a relatively low temperature 4 : difficult to capture or hold permanently : evanescent, transitory 5 : flying or having the power to fly Volatile was originally for the birds—quite literally. Back in the 14th century, volatile was a noun that referred to birds (especially wild fowl) or other winged creatures, such as butterflies. That's not as flighty as it sounds. Volatile traces back to the Latin verb volare, which means "to fly." By the end of the 16th century, people were using volatile as an adjective for things that were so light they seemed ready to fly. The adjective was soon extended to vapors and gases, and by the early 17th century, volatile was being applied to individuals or things as prone to sudden change as some gaseous substances. In recent years, volatile has landed in economic, political, and technical contexts far flown from its avian origins.

Sodden (SAH-dun)

1 a : dull or expressionless especially from continued indulgence in alcoholic beverages b : torpid, sluggish 2 a : heavy with or as if with moisture or water b : heavy or doughy because of imperfect cooking Nowadays, seethed is the past tense and past participle form of the verb seethe (which originally meant "to boil or stew"). Originally, however, seethe could also be conjugated in the past tense as sod and in the past participle as sodden. By the 14th century, sodden had become an independent adjective synonymous with boiled. And, by the 16th century, it had taken on the figurative sense used to describe someone who appears dull, expressionless, or stupid, particularly as a result of heavy drinking. Today, sodden is commonly used as a synonym of soaked or saturated. Seethe followed a different figurative path: while one who is sodden may appear dull, torpid, or sluggish, one who is seething is highly agitated, like a pot of boiling water.

Sound (SOWND)

1 a : free from injury or disease b : free from flaw, defect, or decay 2 a : solid, firm b : stable; also : secure, reliable 3 : free from error, fallacy, or misapprehension 4 a : thorough b : deep and undisturbed c : hard, severe 5 : showing good judgment or sense English contains several sound homographs, all with distinct histories. For example, the sound that means "something heard" descends from Latin sonus ("sound"), whereas the sound that means "to measure the depth of water" traces to Middle French sonde ("sounding line"). Another sound, as in "of sound mind and body," is the contemporary form of Old English's gesund. Gesund is related to several words in other languages, such as Old Saxon gisund ("sound"), Old Frisian sund ("fresh, unharmed, healthy"), and Gothic swinths ("sound" or "healthy"). Another relative is Old High German's gisunt ("healthy"), which led to modern German's gesund, the root of gesundheit.

Plummy (PLUMM-ee)

1 a : full of plums b : choice, desirable 2 a : having a plum color b : rich and mellow often to the point of affectation The name of the fruit plum goes back to Old English. During the 18th century, the word plum became a delectable ingredient in the language. The word for the sweet, juicy fruit denoted such things as a fortune of 100,000 pounds, a rich person, and, by the early 19th century, anything desirable. The related adjective plummy blossomed in the early 18th century with the meaning "full of plums" and had branched out as an adjective for desirable things by the century's end. By the 19th century, it was being used to describe rich, mellow voices. The sweetness of the word did eventually sour, however, when people began to use it to describe stilted or affected speech, as in "the teacher used a plummy voice when he talked to the students' parents."

Arduous (AHR-juh-wus)

1 a : hard to accomplish or achieve : difficult b : marked by great labor or effort : strenuous 2 : hard to climb : steep "To forgive is the most arduous pitch human nature can arrive at." When Richard Steele published that line in The Guardian in 1713, he was using arduous in what was apparently a fairly new way for English writers in his day: to imply that something was steep or lofty as well as difficult or strenuous. Steele's use is one of the earliest documented in English for that meaning, but he didn't commit it to paper until almost 150 years after the first uses of the word in its "strenuous" sense. Although the "steep" sense is newer, it is still true to the word's origins; arduous derives from the Latin arduus, which means "high," "steep," or "difficult."

Purview (PER-vyoo)

1 a : the body or enacting part of a statute b : the limit, purpose, or scope of a statute 2 : the range or limit of authority, competence, responsibility, concern, or intention 3 : range of vision, understanding, or cognizance You might guess that there is a connection between purview and view. Purview comes from purveu, a word often found in the legal statutes of 13th- and 14th-century England. These statutes, written in Anglo-French, opened with the phrases purveu est and purveu que, which translate literally to "it is provided" and "provided that." Purveu derives from porveu, the past participle of the Old French verb porveeir, meaning "to provide." View derives (via Middle English) from the past participle of another Anglo-French word, veer, meaning "to see," and ultimately from Latin vidēre, of the same meaning.

Balmy (BAH-mee)

1 a : having the qualities of balm : soothing b : mild, temperate 2 : crazy, foolish It's no secret that balmy is derived from balm, an aromatic ointment or fragrance that heals or soothes. So when did it come to mean "foolish," you might wonder? Balmy goes back to the 15th century and was often used in contexts referring to weather, such as "a balmy breeze" or, as Mark Twain wrote in Tom Sawyer, "The balmy summer air, the restful quiet...." Around the middle of the 19th century, it developed a new sense suggesting a weak or unbalanced mind. It is uncertain if the soft quality or the soothing effect of balm influenced this use. But later in the century, balmy became altered to barmy in its "crazy" sense. This alteration may have come about from a mix-up with another barmy, meaning "full of froth or ferment." That barmy is from barm, a term for the yeast formed on fermenting malt liquors, which can indeed make one act balmy.

Ineffable (in-EFF-uh-bul)

1 a : incapable of being expressed in words : indescribable b : inexpressibly bad : unspeakable 2 : not to be uttered : taboo "Every tone was a testimony against slavery, and a prayer to God for deliverance from chains. The hearing of those wild notes always depressed my spirit, and filled me with ineffable sadness," wrote Frederick Douglass in his autobiography. Reading Douglass's words, it's easy to see that ineffable means "indescribable" or "unspeakable." And when we break down the word to its Latin roots, it's easy to see how those meanings came about. Ineffable comes from ineffābilis, which joins the prefix in-, meaning "not," with the adjective effābilis, meaning "capable of being expressed." Effābilis comes from effārī ("to speak out"), which in turn comes from ex- and fārī ("to speak").

Masterful (MASS-ter-ful)

1 a : inclined and usually competent to act as master b : suggestive of a domineering nature 2 : having or reflecting the power and skill of a master Some commentators insist that masterful must only mean "domineering," reserving the "expert, skillful" sense for masterly. The distinction is a modern one. In earlier times, the terms were used interchangeably, with each having both the "domineering" and "expert" senses. The "domineering" sense of masterly fell into disuse around the 18th century, however, and in the 20th century the famous grammarian H. W. Fowler decided that masterful should be similarly limited to a single meaning. He summarily ruled that the "expert" definition of masterful was incorrect. Other usage writers followed his lead. But the "expert" meaning of masterful has continued to flourish in standard prose in spite of the disapproval, and, considering the sense's long history, it cannot really be called an error.

Equitable/ Equity

1 a : justice according to natural law or right; specifically : freedom from bias or favoritism b : something that is equitable 2 a : the money value of a property or of an interest in a property in excess of claims or liens against it b : the common stock of a corporation c : a risk interest or ownership right in property d : a right, claim, or interest existing or valid in equity Equity usually appears in courts of law as a term related to justice or proportional fairness, or in financial offices to property or one's share of a company. The derivative root of the noun, which gained stability in the English language during the 1300s, is Latin aequus, meaning "even," "fair," or "equal"; however, to be fair, it was introduced to English by the French, whose adaptation of the Latin was equité. The French word has clear legal connotations; it means "justice" or "rightness," and those meanings, plus a splash of "fairness," carried over to the English word equity. Noah Webster, himself a lawyer, notes the legal term equity of redemption in his 1828 dictionary defining it as "the advantage, allowed to a mortgager, of a reasonable time to redeem lands mortgaged, when the estate is of greater value than the sum for which it was mortgaged." This use led to the modern financial meanings of equity: "the value of a piece of property after any debts that remain to be paid are subtracted" and "a share in a company or of a company's stock."

Gibbous (JIB-us)

1 a : marked by convexity or swelling b of the moon or a planet : seen with more than half but not all of the apparent disk illuminated 2 : having a hump : humpbacked The adjective gibbous has its origins in the Latin noun gibbus, meaning "hump," and in the Late Latin adjective gibbosus, meaning "humpbacked," which Middle English adopted in the 14th century as gibbous. Gibbous has been used to describe the rounded body parts of humans and animals (such as the back of a camel) or to describe the shape of certain flowers (such as snapdragons). The term is most often identified, however, with the study of astronomy. A gibbous moon is one that is more than a half-moon but less than full.

Benevolent

1 a : marked by or disposed to doing good b : organized for the purpose of doing good 2 : marked by or suggestive of goodwill Someone who is benevolent genuinely wishes other people well, which is not surprising if you know the word's history. Benevolent can be traced back to Latin bene, meaning "good," and velle, meaning "to wish." Other descendants of velle in English include volition ("the act or power of making one's choices or decisions"), voluntary, and the rare word velleity (meaning either "the lowest degree of volition" or "a slight wish or tendency"). There is also one more familiar velle descendant: malevolent is the antonym of benevolent, and describes one who is disposed to doing ill instead of good.

Misprision (mis-PRIZH-un)

1 a : neglect or wrong performance of official duty b : concealment of treason or felony by one who is not a participant in the treason or felony c : seditious conduct against the government or the courts 2 : misunderstanding, misinterpretation All but one of the following words traces back to Latin prehendere, meaning "to seize." Which word doesn't belong? -apprehend - comprehend - misprision - misprize - prison - surprise - . It's easy to see the prehendere connection in apprehend and comprehend, whereas you may be surprised that surprise is from prehendere (via Anglo-French susprendre, meaning "to capture" or "to take by surprise"). Prison, too, is from prehendere by way of Anglo-French. And misprision comes to us by way of Anglo-French mesprisun ("error, wrongdoing"), from mesprendre ("to take by mistake"), itself from prehendere. The only word that's out of place is misprize, meaning "to despise" or "to undervalue." It's ultimately from Latin pretium, meaning "value," but—in a trick move that perhaps only English could pull off—misprize has also given us a related noun meaning "contempt, scorn," in the form of an etymologically distinct misprision.

Tenacious (tuh-NAY-shus)

1 a : not easily pulled apart : cohesive b : tending to adhere or cling especially to another substance 2 : persistent in maintaining, adhering to, or seeking something valued or desired 3 : retentive For the more than 400 years that tenacious has been a part of the English language, it has adhered closely to its Latin antecedent: tenax, an adjective meaning "tending to hold fast." Almost from the first, tenacious could suggest either literal adhesion or figurative stick-to-itiveness. Sandburs are tenacious, and so are athletes who don't let defeat get them down. We use tenacious of a good memory, too—one that has a better than average capacity to hold information. But you can also have too much of a good thing. The addition in Latin of the prefix per- ("thoroughly") to tenax led to the English word pertinacious, meaning "perversely persistent." You might use pertinacious for the likes of rumors and telemarketers, for example.

Trivial

1 a : of little worth or importance b : relating to or being the mathematically simplest case; specifically : characterized by having all variables equal to zero 2 : commonplace, ordinary 3 : of, relating to, or constituting a species and especially a biological species Trivial comes from a Latin word meaning "crossroads"—that is, where three roads come together. Since a crossroads is a very public place where all kinds of people might show up, trivialis came to mean "commonplace" or "vulgar." Today, the English word has changed slightly in meaning and instead usually describes something barely worth mentioning. Extending that meaning to the related noun might sound unnecessarily harsh for a word we associate with pub quizzes, but the original notion behind trivia was that whatever qualified wasn't something you should worry about not knowing. Before it became the name of a board game, trivial pursuit referred to something in which one takes an interest but that is ultimately inconsequential.

Abecedarian (ay-bee-see-DAIR-ee-un)

1 a : of or relating to the alphabet b : alphabetically arranged 2 : rudimentary The history of abecedarian is as simple as ABC—literally. The term's Late Latin ancestor, abecedārius (which meant "alphabetical"), was created as a combination of the letters A, B, C, and D, plus the adjective suffix -arius; you can hear the echo of that origin in the pronunciation of the English term (think "ABC-darian"). In its oldest documented English uses in the early 1600s, abecedarian was a noun meaning "one learning the rudiments of something"; it specifically referred to someone who was learning the alphabet. The adjective began appearing in English texts a few decades after the noun.

Auxiliary (awg-ZILL-yuh-ree)

1 a : offering or providing help b : functioning in a subsidiary capacity 2 of a verb : accompanying another verb and typically expressing person, number, mood, or tense 3 a : supplementary b : constituting a reserve 4 of a boat : equipped with sails and a supplementary inboard engine Auxiliary is used in a wide range of capacities in English to describe a person or thing that assists another. A fire department may bring in auxiliary units, for example, to battle a tough blaze, or a sailboat may be equipped with auxiliary engines to supply propulsion when the wind disappears. In grammar, an auxiliary verb assists another (main) verb to express person, number, mood, or tense, such as have in "They have been informed." The Latin source of auxiliary is auxilium, meaning "help."

Moiety (MOY-uh-tee)

1 a : one of two equal parts : half b : one of two approximately equal parts 2 : one of the portions into which something is divided : component, part 3 : one of two basic complementary tribal subdivisions Moiety is one of thousands of words that English speakers borrowed from French. The Anglo-French moité (meaning "a half" or "part of something") comes from Late Latin medietat-, meaning "a half." Around the same time that moiety was borrowed from Anglo-French, medietat- was also borrowed directly from Latin as mediety, a word which can also mean "a half." Medietat- comes from Latin medius (meaning "middle"), which has contributed to such English words as medium, meridian, and milieu.

Candidate (KAN-duh-dayt)

1 a : one that aspires to or is nominated or qualified for an office, membership, or award b : one likely or suited to undergo or be chosen for something specified 2 : a student in the process of meeting final requirements for a degree When a man running for public office in ancient Rome greeted voters in the Forum, the center of judicial and public business, he wore a toga that had been whitened with chalk. As a result, the Latin word for someone seeking office came to be candidatus, meaning literally "clothed in white." Candidatus, in turn, comes from the adjective candidus, meaning "white." Candidatus was adopted into English as candidate, and since the 17th century that word has had an uncontested seat in the language.

Nectar (NEK-ter)

1 a : the drink of the Greek and Roman gods b : something delicious to drink c : a beverage of fruit juice and pulp 2 : a sweet liquid that is secreted by the nectaries of a plant and is the chief raw material of honey Nectar is often mentioned in conjunction with ambrosia, the food of the Greek and Roman gods. For centuries, English speakers have used ambrosia to refer to something with an extremely pleasing taste or smell, and nectar to refer to a delicious drink, especially a fruit juice. To the ancient Greeks and Romans, however, the powers of nectar and ambrosia far exceeded those of any earthly fare; consuming nectar and ambrosia gave the gods their immortality. In Greek, the literal meanings of ambrosia and nectar are "immortality" and "overcoming death," respectively. Nektar is believed to be a compound of Greek nek- (probably akin to Latin nec-, meaning "death") and -tar (probably akin to Sanksrit tarati, meaning "he overcomes or crosses over").

Anathema (uh-NATH-uh-muh)

1 a : one that is cursed by ecclesiastical authority b : someone or something intensely disliked or loathed — usually used as a predicate nominative [a word in the nominative case that completes a copulative verb, such as son in the sentence Charlie is my son.] Copulative verb (a verb that describes the subject by connecting it to a predicate adjective or predicate noun (collectively known as subject complements). Unlike the majority of verbs, they do not describe any direct action taken or controlled by the subject.) See examples - Roses are red. - The detective felt sick. - The soup tasted weird. - Frankenstein's monster resembles a zombie. - He quickly grew tired. 2 a : a ban or curse solemnly pronounced by ecclesiastical authority and accompanied by excommunication b : the denunciation of something as accursed c : a vigorous denunciation : curse From a historical perspective, anathema can be considered a one-word oxymoron. When it first appeared in English in the 1500s, it was used to refer to something accursed. Shortly thereafter, however, people also began to use it to refer to something consecrated to divine use—generally a good thing. Why the contradiction? Anathema comes from Greek, where it initially meant "anything devoted" and later "anything devoted to evil." The "consecrated to divine use" sense of anathema comes from that earlier Greek use but is not widely used today. Modern English speakers are most likely to encounter anathema used as a predicate nominative in the sense of "someone or something that is intensely disliked," as in the example sentences below.

Lunette (loo-NET)

1 a : something that has the shape of a crescent or half-moon b : an opening in a vault especially for a window c : the surface at the upper part of a wall that is partly surrounded by a vault which the wall intersects and that is often filled by windows or by mural painting d : a low crescentic mound (as of sand) formed by the wind 2 : the figure or shape of a crescent moon Lunette, a word borrowed from French, looks like it should mean "little moon"—luna being Latin for "moon" and -ette being a diminutive suffix. There is indeed some 17th-century evidence of the word being used for a small celestial moon, but that meaning is now obsolete. Earlier, in the 16th century, lunette referred to a horseshoe having only the front semicircular part—a meaning that still exists but is quite rare. Other senses of lunette that are infrequently used nowadays include "a blinder especially for a vicious horse" and, in the plural form, "spectacles." (Lunettes is the usual term for eyeglasses in modern French.) The oldest meaning of lunette still in common use is "something shaped like a crescent or half-moon," which our evidence dates to the early 1600s.

Polyglot (PAH-lee-glaht)

1 a : speaking or writing several languages : multilingual b : composed of numerous linguistic groups 2 : containing matter in several languages 3 : composed of elements from different languages 4 : widely diverse (as in ethnic or cultural origins) You've probably run across the prefix poly- before—it comes from Greek and means "many" or "multi-." But what about -glot? That part of the word comes from the Greek term glōtta, meaning "language" or "tongue." (Glōtta is also the source of glottis, the word for the space between the vocal cords.) Polyglot itself entered English in the 17th century, both as an adjective and as a noun meaning "one who can write or speak several languages." You could call the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V a polyglot. He claimed that he addressed his horse only in German, he conversed with women in Italian and with men in French, but reserved Spanish for his talks with God.

Lyric (LEER-ik)

1 a : suitable for singing to the lyre or for being set to music and sung b : of, relating to, or being drama set to music; especially : operatic 2 a : expressing direct usually intense personal emotion especially in a manner suggestive of song b : exuberant, rhapsodic 3 of an opera singer : having a light voice and a melodic style To the ancient Greeks, anything lyrikos was appropriate to the lyre. That elegant stringed instrument was highly regarded by the Greeks and was used to accompany intensely personal poetry that revealed the thoughts and feelings of the poet. When the adjective lyric, a descendant of lyrikos, was adopted into English in the 1500s, it too referred to things pertaining or adapted to the lyre. Initially, it was applied to poetic forms (such as elegies, odes, or sonnets) that express strong emotion, to poets who write such works, or to things meant to be sung. Over time, it was extended to anything musical or rhapsodic. Nowadays, lyric is also used as a noun naming either a type of poem or the words of a song.

Orthography

1 a : the art of writing words with the proper letters according to standard usage b : the representation of the sounds of a language by written or printed symbols 2 : a part of language study that deals with letters and spelling "It's a damn poor mind that can only think of one way to spell a word!" That quote, ascribed to Andrew Jackson, might have been the motto of early English spelling. The concept of orthography (a term that derives from the Greek words orthos, meaning "right or true," and graphein, meaning "to write") was not something that really concerned people until the introduction of the printing press in England in the second half of the 15th century. From then on, English spelling became progressively more uniform and has remained fairly stable since the 1755 publication of Samuel Johnson's Dictionary of the English Language (with the notable exception of certain spelling reforms, such as changing musick to music, that were championed by Noah Webster).

Constitution

1 a : the basic principles and laws of a nation, state, or social group that determine the powers and duties of the government and guarantee certain rights to the people in it b : a written instrument embodying the rules of a political or social organization 2 a : the physical makeup of the individual especially with respect to the health, strength, and appearance of the body b : the structure, composition, physical makeup, or nature of something 3 : an established law or custom : ordinance 4 : the act of establishing, making, or setting up Constitution was constituted in 14th-century English as a word indicating an established law or custom. It is from Latin constitutus, the past participle of constituere, meaning "to set up," which is based on an agreement of the prefix com- ("with, together, jointly") with the verb statuere ("to set or place"). Statuere is the root of statute, which, like constitution, has a legal background; it refers to a set law, rule, or regulation. Constitution is also the name for a system of laws and principles by which a country, state, or organization is governed or the document written as a record of them. Outside of law, the word is used in reference to the physical health or condition of the body ("a person of hearty constitution") or to the form or structure of something ("the molecular constitution of the chemical").

Judgment (JUJ-munt)

1 a : the process of forming an opinion or evaluation by discerning and comparing b : an opinion or estimate so formed 2 a : the capacity for judging : discernment b : the exercise of this capacity 3 a : a formal utterance of an authoritative opinion b : an opinion so pronounced 4 : a formal decision given by a court 5 : a divine sentence or decision Judgment can also be spelled judgement, and usage experts have long disagreed over which spelling is the preferred one. Henry Fowler asserted that "the OED [Oxford English Dictionary] prefers the older & more reasonable spelling. Judgement is therefore here recommended...." William Safire held an opposite opinion, writing, "My judgment is that Fowler is not to be followed on his spelling of judgement." Judgement is in fact the older spelling, but it dropped from favor and for centuries judgment was the only spelling to appear in dictionaries. That changed when the OED (Fowler's source) was published showing judgement as an equal variant. Today, judgment is more popular in the U.S., whereas both spellings make a good showing in Britain.

Viridity (vuh-RID-uh-tee)

1 a : the quality or state of being green b : the color of grass or foliage 2 : naive innocence Viridity is simply a highfalutin way to say "greenness" in both its literal and figurative senses. Greenness goes all the way back to Old English grēnnes, from grēne ("green"), a word akin to Old English grōwan ("to grow"). Viridity did not enter the language until the 15th century, when it was adopted into Middle English as viridite. The ultimate source of viridity is Latin viriditas ("greenness"), itself drawn from the root viridis ("green"). Viridis is also the source (by way of Middle French verdoyant) of English verdant, as well as verdancy, yet another fancy synonym for "greenness."

Franchise

1 a : the right or license granted to an individual or group to market a company's goods or services in a particular territory; also : a business granted such a right or license b : a constitutional or statutory right or privilege; especially : the right to vote 2 a : the right of membership in a professional sports league b : a team and its operating organization having such membership 3 : a series of related works (such as novels or films) each of which includes the same characters or different characters that are understood to exist and interact in the same fictional universe with characters from the other works 4 : freedom or immunity from some burden or restriction vested in a person or group Franchise was voted into early 14th-century English as both a noun and verb. It is from the Anglo-French verb franchir, meaning "to free," itself from franc, "free." To be perfectly frank, the word franchise is most often encountered today with reference to restaurant chains or professional sports teams (e.g., "a franchise quarterback"), not to mention branded retail stores and sequel-driven movies and novels. These commercial meanings are far from the original meaning of the word in English: "freedom or immunity from some burden or restriction vested in a person or group." This meaning evolved into the "right to vote" sense of the word.

Interpolate (in-TER-puh-layt)

1 a : to alter or corrupt (something, such as a text) by inserting new or foreign matter b : to insert (words) into a text or into a conversation 2 : to insert between other things or parts : intercalate 3 : to estimate values of (data or a function) between two known values 4 : to make insertions (as of estimated values) Interpolate comes from Latin interpolare, a verb with various meanings, among them "to refurbish," "to alter," and "to falsify." (The polare part comes from polire, meaning "to polish.") Interpolate entered English in the 17th century and was applied early on to the alteration (and in many cases corruption) of texts by insertion of additional material. Modern use of interpolate still suggests the insertion of something extraneous or spurious, as in "she interpolated her own commentary into the report."

Conflate (kun-FLAYT)

1 a : to bring together : fuse b : confuse 2 : to combine (things, such as two readings of a text) into a composite whole We're not just blowing hot air when we tell you that conflate can actually be traced back to the same roots as the English verb blow. Conflate derives from conflatus, the past participle of the Latin verb conflare ("to blow together, to fuse"), which was formed by combining the prefix com-, meaning "with" or "together," with the Latin verb flare, which means "to blow" and is akin to English's blow. Other descendants of flare in English include afflatus ("a divine imparting of knowledge or power"), inflate, insufflation ("an act of blowing"), and flageolet (a kind of small flute—the flageolet referring to a green kidney bean is unrelated).

Circumscribe (SER-kum-skrybe)

1 a : to constrict the range or activity of definitely and clearly b : to define or mark off carefully 2 a : to draw a line around b : to surround by or as if by a boundary 3 : to construct or be constructed around (a geometrical figure) so as to touch as many points as possible Circumscribe has a lot of relatives in English. Its Latin predecessor circumscribere (which roughly translates as "to draw a circle around") derives from circum-, meaning "circle," and scribere, meaning "to write or draw." Among the many descendants of circum- are circuit, circumference, circumnavigate, circumspect, circumstance, and circumvent. Scribere gave us such words as scribe and scribble, as well as ascribe, describe, and transcribe, among others. Circumscribe was first recorded in the 15th century; it was originally spelled circumscrive, but by the end of the century the circumscribe spelling had also appeared.

Immure (ih-MYOOR)

1 a : to enclose within or as if within walls b : imprison 2 : to build into a wall; especially : to entomb in a wall Like mural, immure comes from murus, a Latin noun that means "wall." Immurare, a Medieval Latin verb, was formed from murus and the prefix in- (meaning "in" or "within"). Immure, which first appeared in English in the late 16th century, literally means "to wall in" or "to enclose with a wall," but it has extended meanings as well. In addition to senses meaning "to imprison" and "to entomb," the word sometimes has broader applications, essentially meaning "to shut in" or "to confine." One might remark, for example, that a very studious acquaintance spends most of her time "immured in the library" or that a withdrawn teenager "immures himself in his bedroom every night."

Devise (dih-VYZE)

1 a : to form in the mind by new combinations or applications of ideas or principles : invent b : to plan to obtain or bring about : plot 2 : to give (real estate) by will There's something inventive about devise, a word that stems from Latin dividere, meaning "to divide." By the time devise began being used in early Middle English, its Anglo-French forebear deviser had accumulated an array of senses, including "divide," "distribute," "arrange," "array," "digest," "order," "plan," "invent," "contrive," and "assign by will." English adopted most of these and added some new senses over the course of time, such as "imagine," "guess," "pretend," and "describe." In modern use, we've disposed of a lot of the old meanings, but we have kept the one that applies to wills; devise has traditionally referred to the transfer of real property (land), and bequeath to personal property. These days, this devise is most often recognized as applying generally to all the property in a person's estate.

Admonish (ad-MAH-nish)

1 a : to indicate duties or obligations to b : to express warning or disapproval to especially in a gentle, earnest, or solicitous manner 2 : to give friendly earnest advice or encouragement to 3 : to say (something) as advice or a warning We won't admonish you if you don't know the origins of today's word—its current meanings have strayed slightly from its history. Admonish was borrowed in the 14th century (via Anglo-French amonester) from Vulgar Latin admonestāre, which itself is probably a derivative of admonestus, the past participle of the Latin verb admonēre, meaning "to warn." Admonēre, in turn, was formed by the combination of the prefix ad- and monēre, "to warn." Other descendants of monēre in English include monitor, monitory ("giving a warning"), premonition, and an archaic synonym of admonish, monish. Incidentally, admonish has a number of other synonyms as well, including reprove, rebuke, reprimand, reproach, and chide.

Scumble (SKUM-bul)

1 a : to make (something, such as color or a painting) less brilliant by covering with a thin coat of opaque or semiopaque color applied with a nearly dry brush b : to apply (a color) in this manner 2 : to soften the lines or colors of (a drawing) by rubbing lightly The history of scumble is blurry, but the word is thought to be related to the verb scum, an obsolete form of skim, meaning "to pass lightly over." Scumbling, as first perfected by artists such as Titian, involves passing dry, opaque coats of oil paint over a tinted background to create subtle tones and shadows. Although the painting technique dates to the 16th century, use of the word scumble is only known to have begun in the late 18th century. The related noun form soon followed.

Validate

1 a : to make legally valid : ratify b : to grant official sanction to by marking c : to confirm the validity of (an election); also : to declare (a person) elected 2 a : to support or corroborate on a sound or authoritative basis b : to recognize, establish, or illustrate the worthiness or legitimacy of Validate, confirm, corroborate, substantiate, verify, and authenticate all mean to attest to the truth or validity of something. Validate implies establishing validity by authoritative affirmation or factual proof ("a hypothesis validated by experiments"). Confirm implies the removing of doubts by an authoritative statement or indisputable fact ("evidence that confirmed the reports"). Corroborate suggests the strengthening of what is already partly established ("witnesses who corroborated the story"). Substantiate implies the offering of evidence that sustains the contention ("claims that have yet to be substantiated"). Verify implies the establishing of correspondence of actual facts or details with those proposed or guessed at ("statements that have been verified"). Authenticate implies establishing genuineness by legal or official documents or expert opinion ("handwriting experts who authenticated the diaries").

Requite (rih-KWYTE)

1 a : to make return for : repay b : to make retaliation for : avenge 2 : to make suitable return to for a benefit or service or for an injury You might be familiar with the phrase "unrequited love." Love that has not been requited is love that has not been returned or paid back in kind, which brings us to the common denominator in the above definitions for requite—the idea of repayment, recompense, or retribution. The quite in requite is a now obsolete English verb meaning "to quit" or "to pay." (Quite is also related to the English verb quit, the oldest meanings of which include "to pay up" and "to set free.") Quiten, the Middle English source of quite, can be traced back through Anglo-French to Latin quietus, meaning "quiet" or "at rest," a word which is also an ancestor of the English word quiet.

Speculate (SPEK-yuh-layt)

1 a : to meditate on or ponder a subject : reflect b : to review something idly or casually and often inconclusively 2 : to assume a business risk in hope of gain; especially : to buy or sell in expectation of profiting from market fluctuations 3 : to take to be true on the basis of insufficient evidence : theorize 4 : to be curious or doubtful about : wonder Speculate was adopted into English in the late 16th century from Latin speculatus, the past participle of the verb speculari, which means "to spy out" or "to examine." Speculari, in turn, derives from specula, meaning "lookout post," and ultimately from the Latin verb specere, meaning "to look (at)." Other conspicuous descendants of specere are inspect and suspect. Some less obvious descendants are the words despise, species, specimen, and as you may have speculated, conspicuous.

Flounce (FLOUNSS)

1 a : to move with exaggerated jerky or bouncy motions b : to go with sudden determination 2 : flounder, struggle The story behind flounce is an elusive one. The verb's earliest recorded uses in English occurred in the mid-1500s, and some scholars believe it is related to the Norwegian verb flunsa (meaning "to hurry" or "to work briskly") and Swedish flunsa ("to fall with a splash" or "to plunge"). The connection is uncertain, however, because the flunsa verbs did not appear in their respective languages until the 18th century, long after flounce surfaced in English. A second distinct sense of flounce, referring to a strip or ruffle of fabric attached on one edge, did not appear in English until the 18th century. This flounce derives from the Middle English frouncen, meaning "to curl."

Cajole (kuh-JOHL)

1 a : to persuade with flattery or gentle urging especially in the face of reluctance : coax b : to obtain from someone by gentle persuasion 2 : to deceive with soothing words or false promises Cajole comes from a French verb, cajoler, which has the same meaning as the English word. You might not think to associate cajole with cage, but some etymologists theorize that cajoler is connected to not one but two words for "cage." One of them is the Anglo-French word cage, from which we borrowed our own cage. It comes from Latin cavea, meaning "cage." The other is the Anglo-French word for "birdcage," which is gaiole. It's an ancestor of our word jail, and it derives from Late Latin caveola, which means "little cage." Anglo-French speakers had a related verb, gaioler, which meant "to chatter like a jay in a cage." It's possible that cajoler is a combination of gaioler and cage.

Lade (LAYD)

1 a : to put a load or burden on or in : load b : to put or place as a load especially for shipment : ship c : to load heavily or oppressively 2 : dip, ladle Lade most often occurs in its past participle form laden, as shown in our examples. There is also the adjective laden, best distinguished from the verb by its placement before nouns, as in "laden ships" or "a laden heart." (The adjective is also at work in hyphenated terms like sugar-laden.) Lade has been in use for more than a millennium and formerly had a nominal counterpart: the noun lade, meaning "load" or "cargo," came to be around the same time but is now obsolete. A few short decades after it faded from active use, the noun lading took on the same meaning. Lading is still in use and appears most often in bill of lading—a term referring to a document that lists goods being shipped and specifies the terms of their transport.

Usurp

1 a : to seize and hold (office, place, functions, powers, etc.) in possession by force or without right b : to take or make use of without right 2 : to take the place of by or as if by force : supplant Usurp was borrowed into English in the 14th century from the Anglo-French word usorper, which in turn derives from the Latin verb usurpare, meaning "to take possession of without a legal claim." Usurpare itself was formed by combining usu (a form of usus, meaning "use") and rapere ("to seize"). Other descendants of rapere in English include rapacious ("given to seizing or extorting what is coveted"), rapine [ˈrapən, ˈrapīn] ("the seizing and carrying away of things by force"), rapt (the earliest sense of which is "lifted up and carried away"), and ravish (one meaning of which is "to seize and take away by violence").

Capitulate (kuh-PIH-chuh-layt)

1 a : to surrender often after negotiation of terms b : to cease resisting : acquiesce 2 archaic : parley, negotiate Capitulate and its synonyms yield, submit, and succumb all mean to give way to someone or something, but have a few slight differences in emphasis. Yield may apply to any sort or degree of bowing to force, debate, or pleading ("yields too easily in any argument"). Submit suggests surrender, after resistance, to the will or control of another ("the soldiers submitted to their captors"). Succumb imputes weakness and helplessness to the person giving in, or an overwhelming power to the opposition ("succumbing to temptation"). Capitulate stresses the termination of all resistance and may imply either a coming to terms, as with an adversary, or hopelessness before an irresistible opposing force ("team owners capitulated to the demands of the players' union").

Ambidextrous (am-bih-DEK-strus)

1 a : using both hands with equal ease or dexterity b soccer : using both feet with equal ease : two-footed 2 : designed or suitable for use by the left or right hand 3 : unusually skillful : versatile 4 : characterized by duplicity : double-dealing Latin dexter originally meant "related to or situated on the right side," but since most people do things better with the right hand, dexter developed the sense of "skillful" (as demonstrated by our word dexterous). In 1646, English physician and author Sir Thomas Browne combined dexter with the Latin prefix ambi- (meaning "both") to form ambidextrous: "Some are ... ambidextrous or right-handed on both sides," he wrote. The word can also describe the kind of mental agility demonstrated by one with multiple diverse talents, such as the ambidextrous leader who successfully works with a diverse team to meet goals.

Leviathan (luh-VYE-uh-thun)

1 a often capitalized Leviathan : a sea monster defeated by Yahweh in various scriptural accounts b : a large sea animal 2 capitalized Leviathan : the political state; especially : a totalitarian state having a vast bureaucracy 3 : something large or formidable Old Testament references to a huge sea monster, Leviathan (in Hebrew, Liwyāthān), are thought to spring from an ancient myth in which the god Baal slays a multiheaded sea monster. Leviathan appears in the book of Psalms as a sea serpent that is killed by God and then given as food to creatures in the wilderness, and it is referred to in the book of Job as well. We began equating Leviathan with the political state after the philosopher Thomas Hobbes used the word in (and as the title of) his 1651 political treatise on government. Today, Leviathan often suggests a crushing political bureaucracy. Leviathan can also be immensely useful as a general term meaning "something monstrous or of enormous size."

Ecstasy

1 a: a state of being beyond reason and self-control b archaic : SWOON 2: a state of overwhelming emotion especially : rapturous delight 3: TRANCE especially : a mystic or prophetic trance 4: often capitalized : a synthetic amphetamine analog C11H15NO2 used illicitly for its mood-enhancing and hallucinogenic properties — called also MDMA

Sea Change

1 archaic : a change brought about by the sea 2 : a marked change : transformation In William Shakespeare's The Tempest, a sea change is a change brought about by the sea, as illustrated by the words of the sprite Ariel to Ferdinand, said to make the prince believe that his father has perished in a shipwreck: "Full fathom five thy father lies...; / Nothing of him that doth fade / But doth suffer a sea-change / into something rich and strange." This meaning of sea change is the original one, but it's now archaic. Long after sea change had gained its figurative meaning—that of any marked or permanent transformation—writers nonetheless continued to allude to Shakespeare's literal one; Charles Dickens, Henry David Thoreau, and P.G. Wodehouse all used the term as an object of the verb suffer, but now a sea change is just as likely to be undergone or experienced.

Prestigious (preh-STIH-juss)

1 archaic : of, relating to, or marked by illusion, conjuring, or trickery 2 : having an illustrious name or reputation : esteemed in general opinion You may be surprised to learn that prestigious had more to do with trickery than with respect when it was first used in the mid-16th century. The earliest (now archaic) meaning of the word was "of, relating to, or marked by illusion, conjuring, or trickery." Prestigious comes to us from the Latin word praestigiosis, meaning "full of tricks" or "deceitful." The words prestige and prestigious are related, of course, though not as directly as you might think; they share a Latin ancestor, but they entered English by different routes. Prestige, which was borrowed from French in the mid-17th century, initially meant "a conjurer's trick," but in the 19th century it developed an extended sense of "blinding or dazzling influence." That change, in turn, influenced prestigious, which now means simply "illustrious or esteemed."

Yahoo

1 capitalized Yahoo : a member of a race of brutes in Swift's Gulliver's Travels who have the form and all the vices of humans 2 : a boorish, crass, or stupid person We know exactly how old yahoo is because its debut in print also marked its entrance into the English language as a whole. Yahoo began life as a made-up word invented by Jonathan Swift in his book Gulliver's Travels, which was published in 1726. On his fourth and final voyage of the book, Lemuel Gulliver is marooned on an island that is the home of the Houyhnhnms, a species of intelligent, civilized horses who share their land with and rule over the Yahoos, a species of brutes with the form and vices of humans. These Yahoos represented Swift's view of humankind at its lowest. It is not surprising, then, that yahoo came to be applied to any actual human who was particularly unpleasant or unintelligent.

Scavenger (SKAV-un-jer)

1 chiefly British : a person employed to remove dirt and refuse from streets 2 : one that scavenges: such as a : a garbage collector b : a junk collector c : a chemically active substance acting to make innocuous or remove an undesirable substance 3 : an organism that typically feeds on refuse or carrion You might guess that scavenger is a derivative of scavenge, but the reverse is actually true; scavenger is the older word, first appearing in English in the early 16th century, and the back-formation scavenge came into English in the mid-17th century. Scavenger is an alteration of the earlier scavager, itself from Anglo-French scawageour, meaning "collector of scavage." In medieval times, scavage was a tax levied by towns and cities on goods put up for sale by nonresidents in order to provide resident merchants with a competitive advantage. The officers in charge of collecting this tax were later made responsible for keeping streets clean, and that's how scavenger came to refer to a public sanitation employee in Great Britain before acquiring its current sense referring to a person who salvages discarded items.

Gallivant (GAL-uh-vant)

1 informal : to travel, roam, or move about for pleasure 2 dated, informal : to go about usually ostentatiously or indiscreetly with members of the opposite sex Back in the 14th century, gallant, a noun borrowed from the French galant, denoted a young man of fashion. By the middle of the next century, it was being used more specifically to refer to such a man who was attentive to, and who had a fondness for the company of, women. In the late 1600s, this "ladies' man" sense gave rise to the verb gallant to describe the process a paramour used to win a lady's heart, and "to gallant" became synonymous with "to court." Etymologists think that the spelling of the verb gallant was altered to create gallivant, which originally meant "to act as a gallant" or "to go about usually ostentatiously or indiscreetly with members of the opposite sex." Nowadays, however, gallivant is more likely to describe wandering than romancing.

Habiliment (huh-BIL-uh-munt)

1 plural : characteristic apparatus : trappings 2 a : the dress characteristic of an occupation or occasion — usually used in plural b : clothes — usually used in plural Habiliment, from Middle French abillement, is a bit old-fashioned and is often used to describe complex, multi-pieced outfits like those of medieval times. For instance, a full suit of armor—which might include a helmet, a gorget, pallettes, brassard, a skirt of tasses, tuilles, gauntlets, cuisses, jambeaus, and sollerets, along with other pieces and plates—can be considered the habiliments of a knight. Nowadays, habiliment, which is usually used in its plural form, is also fitting for the dress of an occupation, such as the different vestments of a priest, or for clothes, such as elegant formal wear, worn on special occasions. When habiliment is used for plain old clothes, it is more than likely for jocular or poetic effect—as we see it being used by William Shakespeare in the first example below.

Cerebral (suh-REE-brul)

1a : of or relating to the brain or the intellect b : of, relating to, affecting, or being the cerebrum 2 a : appealing to intellectual appreciation b : primarily intellectual in nature English borrowed its word cerebrum directly from the Latin word for "brain," but the adjective cerebral, though from the same source, took a slightly more circuitous route, making its way into English by way of French. Cerebrum has been used in our language as a name for the upper part of the brain since at least the 1570s. Cerebral has been appearing in print in English since the beginning of the 19th century, when it initially described the brain generally or the intellect. Other brainy descendants of cerebrum in English include cerebellum (the part of the brain between the brain stem and the back of the cerebrum) and cerebrate, a verb meaning "to use the mind" or "to think."

Frisson (free-SAWN)

: a brief moment of emotional excitement : shudder, thrill "I feel a shiver that's not from the cold as the band and the crowd go charging through the final notes.... That frisson, that exultant moment...." That's how writer Robert W. Stock characterized the culmination of a big piece at a concert in 1982. His use of the word shiver is apt given that frisson comes from the French word for "shiver." Frisson traces to Old French friçon, which in turn derives from frictio, Latin for "friction." What does friction—normally a heat generator—have to do with thrills and chills? Nothing, actually. The association came about because frictio (which derives from Latin fricare, meaning "to rub") was once mistakenly taken to be a derivative of frigēre, which means "to be cold."

Xeriscape (ZEER-uh-skayp)

: a landscaping method developed especially for arid and semiarid climates that utilizes water-conserving techniques (such as the use of drought-tolerant plants, mulch, and efficient irrigation) Xēros is the Greek word for "dry" that is the base for a handful of English words related to mainly dry printing (xerography) and dry, or xerophilous, habitats and their plants. In the early 1980s, the Greek adjective was used to name a type of landscaping practiced primarily in the arid western regions of the United States. (The Water Department of Denver, Colorado, is credited with the coinage.) Xeriscape, as it is called, uses plants that require little water as well as techniques that efficiently use water and reduce evaporation.

Minutia (muh-NOO-shee-uh)

: a minute or minor detail — usually used in plural Minutia was borrowed into English in the 18th century from the Latin plural noun minutiae, meaning "trifles" or "details," and derived from the singular noun minutia, meaning "smallness." In English, minutia is most often used in the plural as either minutiae (pronounced \muh-NOO-shee-ee) or, on occasion, as simply minutia. The Latin minutia, incidentally, comes from minutus, an adjective meaning "small" that was created from the verb minuere, meaning "to lessen." A familiar descendant of minutus is minute.

Yokel (YOH-kul)

: a naive or gullible inhabitant of a rural area or small town The origins of yokel are uncertain, but it might have come from the dialectal English word yokel used as the name for the green woodpecker (the nickname is of imitative origin). Other words for supposedly naive country folk are chawbacon (from chaw, meaning "chew," and bacon), hayseed (which has obvious connections to country life), and clodhopper (indicating a clumsy, heavy-footed rustic). But city slickers don't always have the last word: rural folk have had their share of labels for city-dwellers too. One simple example is the often disparaging use of the adjective citified. A more colorful (albeit historical) example is cockney, which literally means "cocks' egg," or more broadly "misshapen egg." In the past, this word often designated a spoiled or foppish townsman—as opposed to the sturdy countryman, that is.

Volte-face (vawlt-FAHSS)

: a reversal in policy : about-face Volte-face came to English by way of French from Italian voltafaccia, a combination of voltare, meaning "to turn," and faccia, "face." It has existed as an English noun since at least 1819. The corresponding English phrase "about face" saw use in a number of forms in the decades before that, including military commands such as "right about face" (that is, to turn 180 degrees to the right so as to face in the opposite direction); nevertheless, the standalone noun about-face (as in "After declining, he did an abrupt about-face and accepted the offer") is about as old as volte-face. Although foot soldiers have been stepping smartly to the command "About face! Forward march!" for centuries, about-face didn't appear in print as a figurative noun meaning "a reversal of attitude, behavior, or point of view" until the mid-1800s.

Pandiculation (pan-dik-yuh-LAY-shun)

: a stretching and stiffening especially of the trunk and extremities (as when fatigued and drowsy or after waking from sleep) Cat and dog owners who witness daily their pets' methodical body stretching upon awakening might wonder if there is a word to describe their routine—and there is: pandiculation. Pandiculation (which applies to humans too) is the medical term for the stretching and stiffening of the trunk and extremities, often accompanied by yawning, to arouse the body when fatigued or drowsy. The word comes from Latin pandiculatus, the past participle of pandiculari ("to stretch oneself"), and is ultimately derived from pandere, meaning "to spread." Pandere is also the source of expand.

Abandon

: a thorough yielding to natural impulses; especially : enthusiasm, exuberance The sense of abandon defined above is a relative newcomer to the English language, dating from the early 1800s, but an earlier noun sense, defined as "the act of abandoning," was in use in the 1600s. The earlier sense was influenced by the verb abandon, which was borrowed by Middle English in the 1300s from Anglo-French abanduner. The Anglo-French term in turn came from the phrase (mettre) a bandun, meaning "to hand over" or "to put in someone's control." The newer sense has been more directly influenced by French abandon, which means not only "abandonment or surrender" but also "freedom from constraint."

Escapade (ESS-kuh-payd)

: a usually adventurous action that runs counter to approved or conventional conduct When it was first used in English, escapade referred to an act of escaping or fleeing from confinement or restraint. The relationship between escape and escapade does not end there. Both words derive from the Vulgar Latin verb excappare, meaning "to escape," a product of the Latin prefix ex- and the Late Latin noun cappa, meaning "head covering or cloak." While escape took its route through Anglo-French and Middle English, however, escapade made its way into English by way of the Spanish escapar ("to escape") and the French escapade.

Crwth (KROOTH)

: an ancient Celtic stringed instrument that is plucked or bowed Crwth, which comes to us from Welsh, is the name for an ancient Celtic instrument that is similar to a violin. In Middle English, the instrument's name was spelled crouth before metamorphosing to crowd, a word still used in some dialects of England to refer to a violin. Crwth can also refer to a swelling or bulging body, and we can speculate that it came to be used for the instrument because of the violin's bulging form. Other Celtic words for the violin also have meanings referring to rounded shapes. In Irish, for example, cruit can mean "harp" or "violin" as well as "hump" or "hunch."

Cadge (KAJ)

: beg, sponge As long ago as the 1400s, peddlers traveled the British countryside, each with a packhorse or a horse and cart—first carrying produce from rural farms to town markets, then returning with small wares to sell to country folk. The Middle English name for such traders was cadgear; Scottish dialects rendered the term as cadger. Etymologists are pretty sure the verb cadge was created as a back-formation of cadger (which is to say, it was formed by removal of the "-er" suffix). At its most general, cadger meant "carrier," and the verb cadge meant "to carry." More specifically, the verb meant to go about as a cadger or peddler. By the 1800s, it was used when someone who posed as a peddler turned out to be more of a beggar, from which arose our present-day use.

Appreciable (uh-PREE-shuh-bul)

: capable of being perceived or measured Appreciable, like the verb appreciate, comes from the Late Latin verb appretiare ("to appraise" or "to put a price on"). It is one of several English adjectives that can be applied to something that can be detected, felt, or measured. Specifically, appreciable applies to what is highly noticeable or definitely measurable, whereas perceptible, which is often paired with barely or scarcely, applies to what can be discerned to a minimal extent. Sensible refers to something that is clearly perceived; a sensible difference in someone's expression is easily detected. Palpable applies to something that, if it doesn't have actual physical substance, is nevertheless quite noticeable via the senses ("a palpable chill in the air"). Tangible is used for something capable of being handled or grasped, either physically or mentally ("tangible evidence").

Exiguous (ig-ZIG-yuh-wus)

: excessively scanty : inadequate Exiguous is so expansive sounding that you might expect it to mean "extensive" instead of "meager." Even a scanty glimpse at the word's etymology will disabuse you of that notion, however. Exiguous derives from the Latin exiguus, which has the same basic meaning as the modern English term. Exiguus, in turn, derives from the Latin verb exigere, which is variously translated as "to demand," "to drive out," or "to weigh or measure." The idea of weighing or measuring so precisely as to be parsimonious or petty gave exiguous its present sense of inadequacy. Just so we aren't accused of being skimpy with the details, we should also mention that exigere is the parent term underlying other English words including exact and exigent.

Verboten (ver-BOH-tun)

: forbidden; especially : prohibited by dictate Despite its spelling, the adjective verboten has nothing to do with verb, or any of the other words in English related to Latin verbum. Rather, verboten comes from German, and originally from Old High German farboten, the past participle of the verb farbioten, meaning "to forbid." (Forbid itself derives from Old English forbēodan, a relative of farbioten.) Verboten is used to describe things that are forbidden according to a law or a highly regarded authority. There also exists the rarely used noun verboten, meaning "something forbidden by authority," as in "well-established verbotens."

Pejorative (pih-JOR-uh-tiv)

: having negative connotations; especially : tending to disparage or belittle : depreciatory "If you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all." Parents have given that good advice for years, but unfortunately many people haven't heeded it. The word pejorative makes it clear that both English and Latin speakers have long known that disparaging words can make a bad situation worse. Pejorative derives from the Late Latin adjective pējōrātus, which in turn comes from the Latin verb pējōrāre, meaning "to make or become worse." Although pejorative words have probably always been part of English, the adjective pejorative has only been found in English texts since the late 1880s. Before then, English speakers could rely on older synonyms of pejorative such as derogatory and uncomplimentary to describe disparaging words.

Ambivalent

: having or showing simultaneous and contradictory attitudes or feelings toward something : characterized by ambivalence The words ambivalent and ambivalence entered English during the early 20th century in the field of psychology. They came to us through the International Scientific Vocabulary, a set of words common to people of science who speak different languages. The prefix ambi- means "both," and the -valent and -valence parts ultimately derive from the Latin verb valēre, meaning "to be strong." Not surprisingly, an ambivalent person is someone who has strong feelings on more than one side of a question or issue.

Forsooth (fer-SOOTH)

: in truth : indeed — often used to imply contempt or doubt Forsooth sounds like a dated word, but it is still part of modern English; it is primarily used in humorous or ironic contexts, or in a manner intended to play off the word's archaic vibe. Forsooth was formed from the combination of the preposition for and the noun sooth. Sooth survives as both a noun (meaning "truth" or "reality") and an adjective (meaning "true," "sweet," or "soft"), though it is rarely used by contemporary speakers and writers. It primarily lives on in the verb soothe (which originally meant "to show, assert, or confirm the truth of") and in the noun soothsayer (that is, "truthsayer"), a name for someone who can predict the future.

Incongruous

: lacking congruity: as a : not harmonious : incompatible b : not conforming : disagreeing c : inconsistent within itself d : lacking propriety : unsuitable Incongruous is a spin-off of its antonym, congruous, which means "in agreement, harmony, or correspondence." Etymologists are in agreement about the origin of both words: they trace to the Latin congruus, from the verb congruere, which means "to come together" or "to agree." The dates of these words' first uses in English match up pretty well, too. Both words are first known to have appeared in English in the early 1580s.

Hoise (HOYZ)

: lift, raise; especially : to raise into position by or as if by means of tackle The connection between hoise and hoist is a bit confusing. The two words are essentially synonymous variants, but hoist is far more common; hoise and its inflected forms hoised and hoising are infrequently used. But a variant of its past participle shows up fairly frequently as part of a set expression. And now, here's the confusing part: that variant past participle is hoist! The expression is "hoist with (or by) one's own petard," which means "victimized or hurt by one's own scheme." This oft-heard phrase owes its popularity to William Shakespeare's Hamlet in which the titular character says, "For 'tis the sport to have the engineer hoist with his own petar[d]." (A petard is a medieval explosive. The quote implies that the engineer—the person who sets the explosive device—is blown into the air by the explosion of his own device.)

Vivacious (vuh-VAY-shus)

: lively in temper, conduct, or spirit : sprightly It's no surprise that vivacious means "full of life," since it can be traced back to the Latin verb vivere, meaning "to live." The word was created around the mid-17th century using vivax, a vivere derivative meaning "long-lived, vigorous, or high-spirited." Other descendants of vivere in English include survive, revive, and victual—all of which came to life during the 15th century—and vivid and convivial, both of which surfaced around the same time as vivacious. Somewhat surprisingly, the word live is not related; it comes to us from the Old English word libban.

Requisite (REK-wuh-zut)

: needed for a particular purpose : essential, necessary Acquiring an understanding of where requisite comes from won't require a formal inquiry. Without question, the quest begins with Latin quaerere, which means "to ask" or "to seek." That word is ancestor to a number of English words, including acquire, require, inquiry, question, quest, and, of course, requisite. From quaerere came requirere, meaning "to ask again." Repeated requests can express a need, and the past participle of Latin requirere, which is requisitus, came to mean "needed" or "necessary." English acquired requisite when it was adopted into Middle English back in the 1400s.

Pelagic (puh-LAJ-ik)

: of, relating to, or living or occurring in the open sea : oceanic Pelagic comes to us from Greek, via Latin. The Greek word pelagikos became pelagicus in Latin and then pelagic in English. (Pelagikos is derived from pelagos, the Greek word for the sea—it is also a source of archipelago—plus the adjectival suffix -ikos.) Pelagic first showed up in dictionaries in 1656; a definition from that time says that Pelagick (as it was then spelled) meant "of the Sea, or that liveth in the Sea." Centuries later, writers are still using pelagic with the same meaning, albeit less frequently than its more familiar synonym oceanic.

Hypnagogic (hip-nuh-GAH-jik)

: of, relating to, or occurring in the period of drowsiness immediately preceding sleep "The hypnagogic state is that heady lull between wakefulness and sleep when thoughts and images flutter, melt, and transform into wild things," wrote Boston Globe correspondent Cate McQuaid (October 1, 1998). Some scientists have attributed alien-abduction stories to this state, but for most people these "half-dreams" are entirely innocuous. Perhaps the most famous hypnagogic dream is that of the German chemist Friedrich August Kekule von Stradonitz, who was inspired with the concept of the benzene ring by a vision of a snake biting its own tail. You're not dreaming if the Greek root hypn-, meaning "sleep," seems familiar—you've seen it in hypnotize. The root -agogic is from the Greek -agōgos, meaning "inducing," from agein meaning "to lead." We borrowed hypnagogic (also spelled hypnogogic) from French hypnagogique in the late 19th century.

Sisyphian (sis-uh-FEE-un)

: of, relating to, or suggestive of the labors of Sisyphus; specifically : requiring continual and often ineffective effort In Greek mythology, Sisyphus was a king who annoyed the gods with his trickery. As a consequence, he was condemned for eternity to roll a huge rock up a long, steep hill in the underworld, only to watch it roll back down. The story of Sisyphus is often told in conjunction with that of Tantalus, who was condemned to stand beneath fruit-laden boughs, up to his chin in water. Whenever he bent his head to drink, the water receded, and whenever he reached for the fruit, the branches moved beyond his grasp. Thus to tantalize is to tease or torment by offering something desirable but keeping it out of reach—and something Sisyphean (or Sisyphian, pronounced \sih-SIFF-ee-un\) demands unending, thankless, and ultimately unsuccessful efforts.

Luddite (LUH-dyte)

: one of a group of early 19th-century English workmen destroying laborsaving machinery as a protest; broadly : one who is opposed to especially technological change Luddites could be considered the first victims of corporate downsizing. The Luddite movement began in the vicinity of Nottingham, England, toward the end of 1811 when textile mill workers rioted for the destruction of the new machinery that was slowly replacing them. Their name is of uncertain origin, but it may be connected to a (probably mythical) person known as Ned Ludd. According to an unsubstantiated account in George Pellew's Life of Lord Sidmouth (1847), Ned Ludd was a Leicestershire villager of the late 1700s who, in a fit of insane rage, rushed into a stocking weaver's house and destroyed his equipment; subsequently, his name was proverbially connected with machinery destruction. With the onset of the information age, Luddite gained a broader sense describing anyone who shuns new technology.

Benefic

: producing good or helpful results or effects : beneficent Benefic comes from Latin beneficus, which in turn comes from bene ("well") and facere ("to do"). The word was originally used by astrologers to refer to celestial bodies believed to have a favorable influence, and it's still used in astrological contexts. Benefic, beneficial, and beneficent are all synonyms, but there are shades of difference. Beneficial usually applies to things that promote well-being (as in "a beneficial dietary plan"), or that provide some benefit or advantage ("advice that proved financially beneficial"). Beneficent means doing or effecting good (as in "a beneficent influence"), but in particular it refers to the performance of acts of kindness or charity ("a beneficent organization"). Benefic, the rarest of the three, tends to be a bit high-flown, and it's mostly used to describe a favorable power or force.

Operose (AH-puh-rohss)

: tedious, wearisome Operose comes from the Latin operōsus, which has the meaning of "diligent," "painstaking" or "laborious." That word combines opera, meaning "activity," "effort," or "work," with -ōsus—the Latin equivalent of the English -ose and -ous suffixes, meaning "full of" or "abounding in." In its earliest uses, in the mid-16th century, the word was used to describe people who are industrious or painstaking in their efforts. About a century later, the word was being applied as it more commonly is today: as an adjective describing tasks and undertakings requiring much time and effort. "An operose and expensive establishment of a Supreme Court was made, and charged upon the revenues of the country. In the large manufactories of this country, the ignition of the above mixture in pots is laid aside, as too operose and expensive. Everything connected with the processes of husbandry is slow and operose."

Rendition (ren-DISH-un)

: the act or result of rendering something: such as a : a performance or interpretation of something b : depiction c : translation d : surrender; specifically, US law : the surrender by a state of a fugitive to another state charging the fugitive with a crime : interstate extradition Rendition entered English in the early 17th century and can be traced to the Middle French word reddition and ultimately to the Latin verb reddere, meaning "to return." The English verb render is another descendant of reddere, so perhaps it is no surprise that rendition fundamentally means "the act or result of rendering." English speakers also once adopted reddition itself (meaning either "restitution, surrender" or "elucidation"), but that word has mostly dropped out of use. Incidentally, if you've guessed that surrender is also from the same word family, you may be right; surrender derives in part from the Anglo-French rendre, which likely influenced the alteration of reddition to rendition.

Argot (AHR-goh)

: the language used by a particular type or group of people : an often more or less secret vocabulary and idiom peculiar to a particular group We borrowed argot from French in the early 1800s, although our language already had several words covering its meaning. There was jargon, the Anglo-French ancestor of which meant "twittering of birds"; it had been used for specialized (and often obscure or pretentious) vocabulary since the 1600s. There was also lingo, from the Latin word lingua, meaning "language"; that term had been in use for more than a century. English novelist and lawyer Henry Fielding used it of "court gibberish"—what we tend to call legalese. And speaking of legalese, the suffix -ese is a newer means of indicating arcane vocabulary. One of its very first applications at the turn of the 20th century was for "American 'golfese.'"

Heyday (HAY-day)

: the period of one's greatest popularity, vigor, or prosperity In its earliest appearances in English, in the 16th century, heyday was used as an interjection that expressed elation or wonder (similar to our word hey, from which it derives). Within a few decades, heyday was seeing use as a noun meaning "high spirits." This sense can be seen in Act III, scene 4 of Hamlet, when the Prince of Denmark tells his mother, "You cannot call it love; for at your age / The heyday in the blood is tame...." The word's second syllable is not thought to be borne of the modern word day (or any of its ancestors), but in the 18th century the syllable's resemblance to that word likely influenced the development of the now-familiar use referring to the period when one's achievement or popularity has reached its zenith.

Aphelion (af-EEL-yun)

: the point farthest from the sun in the path of an orbiting celestial body (such as a planet) Aphelion and perihelion are troublesome terms. Which one means a planet is nearest to the sun and which means it is farthest away? An etymology lesson may help you keep those words straight. Just remember that the "ap" of aphelion derives from a Latin prefix that means "away from" (the mnemonic "'A' for 'away'" can help too); peri-, on the other hand, means "near." And how are aphelion and perihelion related to the similar-looking astronomical pair apogee and perigee? Etymology explains again. The "helion" of aphelion and perihelion is based on the Greek word hēlios, meaning "sun," while the "gee" of apogee and perigee is based on gaia, meaning "earth." The first pair describes distance in relation to the sun, the second in relation to the Earth.

Malapropism (MAL-uh-prah-piz-um)

: the usually unintentionally humorous misuse or distortion of a word or phrase; especially : the use of a word sounding somewhat like the one intended but ludicrously wrong in the context Mrs. Malaprop, a character in Richard Sheridan's 1775 play The Rivals, was known for her verbal blunders. "He is the very pine-apple of politeness," she exclaimed, complimenting a courteous young man. Thinking of the geography of contiguous countries, she spoke of the "geometry" of "contagious countries," and she hoped that her daughter might "reprehend" the true meaning of what she was saying. She regretted that her "affluence" over her niece was small. The word malapropism derives from this blundering character's name, which Sheridan took from the French term mal à propos, meaning "inappropriate."

Boustrophedon (boo-struh-FEE-dahn)

: the writing of alternate lines in opposite directions (as from left to right and from right to left) Before the standardization of writing from left to right, ancient Greek inscribers once used a style called boustrophedon, a word meaning literally "turning like oxen in plowing." When they came to the end of a line, the ancient Greeks simply started the next line immediately below the last letter, writing the letters and words in the opposite direction, and thus following the analogy of oxen plowing left to right, then right to left. Reverse boustrophedon writing has also been found in which the inscribers turned the document 180 degrees before starting a new line so that the words are always read left to right with every half turn. The word boustrophedon itself is formed from the Greek word for the ox or cow, bous,

Truckle (TRUK-ul)

: to act in a subservient manner : submit When truckle was first used in English in the 15th century, it meant "small wheel" or "pulley." Such small wheels were often attached to the underside of low beds to allow them to be easily moved under high beds for storage. These beds came to be known as truckle beds (or trundle beds), and a verb truckle—meaning "to sleep in a truckle bed"—came into being. By the 17th century, the fact that truckle beds were pushed under larger standard beds had inspired a figurative sense of truckle: "to yield to the wishes of another" or "to bend obsequiously." The initial verb sense became obsolete; the newer sense is fairly rare but is still in use.

Oblige (uh-BLYJE)

: to constrain by physical, moral, or legal force or by the exigencies of circumstance 2 a : to put in one's debt by a favor or service b : to do a favor for c : to do something as or as if as a favor Oblige shares some similarities with its close relative obligate, but there are also differences. Oblige derives via Middle English and the Anglo-French obliger from Latin obligare ("to bind to"), a combination of ob- ("to or toward") and ligare ("to bind"), whereas obligate descends directly from obligatus, the Latin past participle of obligare. Both oblige and obligate are frequently used in their past participle forms to express a kind of legal or moral constraint. Obligated once meant "indebted for a service or favor," but today it typically means "required to do something because the law requires it or because it is the right thing to do." Obliged is now the preferred term for the sense that Southern author Flannery O'Connor used in a 1952 letter: "I would be much obliged if you would send me six copies."

Palpate (PAL-payt)

: to examine by touch especially medically Palpate has been part of the English language since the 19th century. It was probably coined from the preexisting noun form palpation, which itself traces back to the Latin verb palpare, meaning "to stroke or caress." Other descendants of palpare in English include palpable (an adjective that might describe a tense moment that can be "felt"), palpitate (what the heart does when it beats so hard that it can be felt through the chest), and the verb palp ("to touch or feel"). Even feel itself is a distant cousin of palpitate, as both words can be linked to the same ancient root word that gave Latin palpare.

Disabuse (diss-uh-BYOOZ)

: to free from error, misconception, or fallacy We know the verb abuse as a word meaning "to misuse," "to mistreat," or "to revile." But when disabuse first appeared in the early 17th century, there was a sense of abuse, now obsolete, that meant "to deceive." Sir Francis Bacon used that sense, for example, when he wrote in 1605, "You are much abused if you think your virtue can withstand the King's power." The prefix dis- has the sense of undoing the effect of a verb, so it's not surprising that disabuse means "to undeceive." English speakers didn't come up with the idea of joining dis- to abuse all on their own, however. It was the French who first appended their prefix dés- to their verb abuser. English disabuse is modeled after French désabuser.

Instigate (IN-stuh-gayt)

: to goad or urge forward : provoke Instigate is often used as a synonym of incite (as in "hoodlums instigating violence"), but the two words differ slightly in their overall usage. Incite usually stresses an act of stirring something up that one did not necessarily initiate ("the court's decision incited riots"). Instigate implies responsibility for initiating or encouraging someone else's action and usually suggests dubious or underhanded intent ("he was charged with instigating a conspiracy"). Another similar word, foment, implies causing something by means of persistent goading ("the leader's speeches fomented a rebellion"). Deriving from the past participle of the Latin verb instigare, instigate stepped into English in the 16th century, after incite and ahead of foment.

Abbreviate

: to make briefer; especially : to reduce (a word or name) to a shorter form intended to stand for the whole Abbreviate and abridge both mean "to make shorter," so it probably will come as no surprise that both derive from Latin brevis, meaning "short." Abbreviate first appeared in print in English in the 15th century and derives from abbreviātus, the past participle of Late Latin abbreviāre, which in turn can be traced back to brevis. Abridge, which appeared a century earlier, also comes from abbreviāre but took a side trip through the Anglo-French abreger before arriving in Middle English as abreggen. Brevis is also the ancestor of English brief itself, as well as brevity and breviary ("a prayer book" or "a brief summary"), among other words.

Collimate (KAH-luh-mayt)

: to make parallel One might expect a science-y word like collimate to have a straightforward etymology, but that's not the case. Collimate comes from Latin collimāre, a misreading of the Latin word collineāre, meaning "to direct in a straight line." The erroneous collimāre appeared in some editions of the works of ancient Roman statesman Cicero and scholar Aulus Gellius. The error was propagated by later writers—most notably by astronomers, such as Johannes Kepler, who wrote in Latin. And so it was the spelling collimate, rather than collineate, that passed into English in the 19th century as a verb meaning "to make (something, such as light rays) parallel."

Hotdog (HAHT-dawg)

: to perform in a conspicuous or often ostentatious manner; especially : to perform fancy stunts and maneuvers (as while surfing or skiing) The verb hotdog first appeared in the latter half of the 20th century, and it was adopted from the use of the noun hot dog for someone who is very good at something. The noun was popularized around the turn of the 19th century along with the interjection hot dog to express approval or gratification. In time, the noun became mainly associated with people who showed off their skills in sports, from basketball to skiing, and the verb form came to be used for the spectacular acts of these show-offs. (As a side tidbit to chew on, the word for the frankfurter that might be eaten while watching athletes perform was also on the menu in the late 19th century.)

Stymie (STYE-mee)

: to present an obstacle to : stand in the way of Golf was being played in Scotland as early as the 15th century, but it wasn't until the 19th century that the sport really caught on in England and North America. It was also in the 19th century that the word stymie entered English as a noun referring to a golfing situation in which one player's ball lies between another ball and the hole on the putting green, thereby blocking the line of play. Later, stymie came to be used as a verb meaning "to bring into the position of, or impede by, a stymie." By the early 20th century, the verb was being applied in similarly vexing non-golf contexts.

Grubstake (GRUB-stayk)

: to provide with material assistance (such as a loan) for launching an enterprise or for a person in difficult circumstances Grubstake is a linguistic nugget that was dug up during the famous California Gold Rush, which began in 1848. Sometime between the first stampede and the early 1860s, when the gold-seekers headed off to Montana, prospectors combined grub ("food") and stake, meaning "an interest or share in an undertaking." At first grubstake was a noun, referring to any kind of loan or provisions that could be finagled to make an undertaking possible (with the agreement that the "grubstaker" would get a cut of any profits). By the 1870s, grubstake was also showing up as a verb meaning "to give someone a grubstake," and, since at least 1900, shortly after the Klondike Gold Rush, it has been applied to other situations in which a generous benefactor comes through with the funds.

Rebuff (rih-BUFF)

: to reject or criticize sharply : snub Occurring frequently in news articles and headlines, rebuff derives (via Middle French rebuffer) from Old Italian ribuffare, meaning "to reprimand," and ultimately from the imitative verb buffare, meaning "to puff." (You might guess that the verb buff, meaning "to polish," is a buffare descendant, but it is actually unrelated. It is derived from Middle French buffle, meaning "wild ox.") A similar word, rebuke, shares the "criticize" sense of rebuff, but not the "reject" sense (one can rebuke another's actions or policies, but one does not rebuke the advances of another, for example). Like rebuke, rebuff can also be used as a noun, as in "His proposal was met with a stern rebuff from the Board of Trustees."

Filch (FILCH)

: to steal secretly or casually "I am glad I am so acquit of this tinder-box: his thefts were too open; his filching was like an unskilful singer—he kept not time." So says Falstaff in William Shakespeare's play The Merry Wives of Windsor. The Bard was fond of filch in both its literal and figurative uses; Iago, for example, says to Othello, "But he that filches from me my good name / Robs me of that which not enriches him / And makes me poor indeed." Filch derives from the Middle English word filchen ("to attack" or "to steal") and perhaps from Old English gefylce ("band of men, troop, army"). As a noun, filch once referred to a hooked staff used by thieves to snatch articles out of windows and from similar places, but this use is now obsolete.

Advocate (AD-vuh-kayt)

: to support or argue for (a cause, policy, etc.) : to plead in favor of Benjamin Franklin may have been a great innovator in science and politics, but on the subject of advocate, he was against change. In 1789, he wrote a letter to his compatriot Noah Webster complaining about a "new word": the verb advocate. Like others of his day, Franklin knew advocate primarily as a noun meaning "one who pleads the cause of another," and he urged Webster to condemn the verb's use. In truth, the verb wasn't as new as Franklin assumed (etymologists have traced it back as far as 1599), though it was apparently surging in popularity in his day. Webster evidently did not heed Franklin's plea. His famous 1828 dictionary, An American Dictionary of the English Language, entered both the noun and the verb senses of advocate.

Legume

A large plant family characterized by seed-bearing pods. Common members are eaten as dried seeds: lentils, beans (kidney, fava or broad, navy, bush, string, lima, Windsor, soybeans), peas, including chickpeas or garbanzos, and peanuts. The roots of most legumes harbor bacteria that convert nitrogen in air to nitrogen compounds used by their hosts; therefore, legumes often grow well in depleted soils.

Junk

A very large flatbottom sailing ship produced in the Tang and Song Empires, specially designed for long-distance commercial travel. A sailing vessel of a kind used in East and South-East Asia, typically having fully-battened [strengthen or fasten (something) with battens ((a long, flat strip of squared wood or metal used to hold something in place or as a fastening against a wall.)) ] lugsails [an asymmetrical four-sided sail that is hoisted on a steeply inclined yard]

Troposphere VII

Cumuliform clouds will form in the free atmosphere if a parcel of air, upon saturation, is warmer than the surrounding ambient atmosphere. Since this air parcel is warmer than its surroundings, it will accelerate upward, creating the saturated turbulent bubble characteristic of a cumuliform cloud. Cumuliform clouds, which reach no higher than the lower troposphere, are known as cumulus humulus when they are randomly distributed and as stratocumulus when they are organized into lines. Cumulus congestus clouds extend into the middle troposphere, while deep, precipitating cumuliform clouds that extend throughout the troposphere are called cumulonimbus. Cumulonimbus clouds are also called thunderstorms, since they usually have lightning and thunder associated with them. Cumulonimbus clouds develop from cumulus humulus and cumulus congestus clouds.

Troposphere V

During windy conditions, the mechanical production of turbulence becomes important. Turbulence eddies produced by wind shear tend to be smaller in size than the turbulence bubbles produced by the rapid convection of buoyant air. Within a few tens of metres of the surface during windy conditions, the wind speed increases dramatically with height. If the winds are sufficiently strong, the turbulence generated by wind shear can overshadow the resistance of layered, thermally stable air. In general, there tends to be little turbulence above the boundary layer in the troposphere. Even so, there are two notable exceptions. First, turbulence is produced near jet streams, where large velocity shears exist both within and adjacent to cumuliform clouds. In these locations, buoyant turbulence occurs as a result of the release of latent heat. Second, pockets of buoyant turbulence may be found at and just above cloud tops. In these locations, the radiational cooling of the clouds destabilizes pockets of air and makes them more buoyant. Clear-air turbulence (CAT) is frequently reported when aircraft fly near one of these regions of turbulence generation. The top of the troposphere, called the tropopause, corresponds to the level in which the pattern of decreasing temperature with height ceases. It is replaced by a layer that is essentially isothermal (of equal temperature). In the tropics and subtropics, the tropopause is high, often reaching to about 18 km (11 miles), as a result of vigorous vertical mixing of the lower atmosphere by thunderstorms. In polar regions, where such deep atmospheric turbulence is much less frequent, the tropopause is often as low as 8 km (5 miles). Temperatures at the tropopause range from as low as −80 °C (−112 °F) in the tropics to −50 °C (−58 °F) in polar regions.

Latitude

In geography, latitude is a geographic coordinate that specifies the north-south position of a point on the Earth's surface. Latitude is an angle (defined below) which ranges from 0° at the Equator to 90° (North or South) at the poles. Lines of constant latitude, or parallels, run east-west as circles parallel to the equator. Latitude is used together with longitude to specify the precise location of features on the surface of the Earth. On its own, the term latitude should be taken to be the geodetic latitude as defined below. Briefly, geodetic latitude at a point is the angle formed by the vector perpendicular (or normal) to the ellipsoidal surface from that point, and the equatorial plane. Also defined are six auxiliary latitudes that are used in special applications.

Lent

Lent, in the Christian church, a period of penitential preparation for Easter. In Western churches it begins on Ash Wednesday, six and a half weeks before Easter, and provides for a 40-day fast (Sundays are excluded), in imitation of Jesus Christ's fasting in the wilderness before he began his public ministry. In Eastern churches Lent begins on the Monday of the seventh week before Easter and ends on the Friday that is nine days before Easter. This 40-day "Great Lent" includes Saturdays and Sundays as relaxed fast days. The Lenten (from Middle English lenten, "spring") season is rooted in the preparation of candidates for baptism... A period of preparation and fasting likely has been observed before the Easter festival since apostolic times, though the practice was not formalized until the First Council of Nicaea in 325 CE. It was a time of preparation of candidates for baptism and a time of penance for grievous sinners who were excluded from Communion and were preparing for their restoration. As a sign of their penitence, they wore sackcloth and were sprinkled with ashes. This form of public penance began to die out in the 9th century, and it became customary for all the faithful to be reminded of the need for penitence by receiving an imposition of ashes on their foreheads on the first day of Lent—hence the name Ash Wednesday.

Brook

Suffer or tolerate

Litigious

Suitable to become the subject of law; prone to engage in lawsuits

Thermosphere

Temperatures in the thermosphere range from near 500 K (approximately 227 °C, or 440 °F) during periods of low sunspot activity to 2,000 K (1,725 °C, or 3,137 °F) when the Sun is active. The thermopause, defined as the level of transition to a more or less isothermal temperature profile at the top of the thermosphere, occurs at heights of around 250 km (150 miles) during quiet Sun periods and almost 500 km (300 miles) when the Sun is active. Above 500 km, molecular collisions are infrequent enough that temperature is difficult to define. The portion of the thermosphere where charged particles (ions) are abundant is called the ionosphere. These ions result from the removal of electrons from atmospheric gases by solar ultraviolet radiation. Extending from about 80 to 300 km (about 50 to 185 miles) in altitude, the ionosphere is an electrically conducting region capable of reflecting radio signals back to Earth. Maximum ion density, a condition that makes for efficient radio transmission, occurs within two sublayers: the lower E region, which exists from 90 to 120 km (about 55 to 75 miles) in altitude; and the F region, which exists from 150 to 300 km (about 90 to 185 miles) in altitude. The F region has two maxima (i.e., two periods of highest ion density) during daylight hours, called F1 and F2. Both the F1 and F2 regions possess high ion density and are strongly influenced by both solar activity and time of day. Of these, the F2 region is the more variable of the two and may reach an ion density as high as 106 electrons per cubic centimetre. Shortwave radio transmissions, capable of reaching around the world, take advantage of the ability of layers in the ionosphere to reflect certain wavelengths of electromagnetic radiation. In addition, electrical discharges from the tops of thunderstorms into the ionosphere, called transient luminous events, have been observed.

Antennation

The action of an insect using its antennae to touch something, esp. (the antennae of) another insect; an instance of this

Troposphere VI

The region above the planetary boundary layer is commonly known as the free atmosphere. Winds at this volume are not directly retarded by surface friction. Clouds occur most frequently in this portion of the troposphere, though fog and clouds that impinge or develop over elevated terrain often occur at lower levels. There are two basic types of clouds: cumuliform and stratiform. Both cloud types develop when clear air ascends, cooling adiabatically as it expands until either water begins to condense or deposition occurs. Water undergoes a change of state from gas to liquid under these conditions, because cooler air can hold less water vapour than warmer air. For example, air at 20 °C (68 °F) can contain almost four times as much water vapour as at 0 °C (32 °F) before saturation takes place and water vapour condenses into liquid droplets. Stratiform clouds occur as saturated air is mechanically forced upward and remains colder than the surrounding clear air at the same height. In the lower troposphere, such clouds are called stratus. Advection fog is a stratus cloud with a base lying at Earth's surface. In the middle troposphere, stratiform clouds are known as altostratus. In the upper troposphere, the terms cirrostratus and cirrus are used. The cirrus cloud type refers to thin, often wispy, cirrostratus clouds. Stratiform clouds that both extend through a large fraction of the troposphere and precipitate are called nimbostratus. Cumuliform clouds occur when saturated air is turbulent. Such clouds, with their bubbly turreted shapes, exhibit the small-scale up-and-down behaviour of air in the turbulent planetary boundary layer. Often such clouds are seen with bases at or near the top of the boundary layer as turbulent eddies generated near Earth's surface reach high enough for condensation to occur.

Stratosphere and Mesosphere

The stratosphere is located above the troposphere and extends up to about 50 km (30 miles). Above the tropopause and the isothermal layer in the lower stratosphere, temperature increases with height. Temperatures as high as 0 °C (32 °F) are observed near the top of the stratosphere. The observed increase of temperature with height in the stratosphere results in strong thermodynamic stability with little turbulence and vertical mixing. The warm temperatures and very dry air result in an almost cloud-free volume. The infrequent clouds that do occur are called nacreous, or mother-of-pearl, clouds because of their striking iridescence, and they appear to be composed of both ice and supercooled water. These clouds form up to heights of 30 km (19 miles). The pattern of temperature increase with height in the stratosphere is the result of solar heating as ultraviolet radiation in the wavelength range of 0.200 to 0.242 micrometre dissociates diatomic oxygen (O2). The resultant attachment of single oxygen atoms to O2 produces ozone (O3). Natural stratospheric ozone is produced mainly in the tropical and middle latitudes. Regions of nearly complete ozone depletion, which have occurred in the Antarctic during the spring, are associated with nacreous clouds, chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), and other pollutants from human activities. These regions are more commonly known as ozone holes. Ozone is also transported downward into the troposphere, primarily in the vicinity of the polar front. The stratopause caps the top of the stratosphere, separating it from the mesosphere near 45-50 km (28-31 miles) in altitude and a pressure of 1 millibar (approximately equal to 0.75 mm of mercury at 0 °C, or 0.03 inch of mercury at 32 °F). In the mesosphere, temperatures again decrease with increasing altitude. Unlike the situation in the stratosphere, vertical air currents in the mesosphere are not strongly inhibited. Ice crystal clouds, called noctilucent clouds, occasionally form in the upper mesosphere. Above the mesopause, a region occurring at altitudes near 85 to 90 km (50 to 55 miles), temperature again increases with height in a layer called the thermosphere.

Troposphere II

Under clear, sunny skies over land, the planetary boundary layer tends to be relatively deep as a result of the heating of the ground by the Sun and the resultant generation of convective turbulence. During the summer, the planetary boundary layer can reach heights of 1 to 1.5 km (0.6 to 1 mile) above the land surface—for example, in the humid eastern United States—and up to 5 km (3 miles) in the southwestern desert. Under these conditions, when unsaturated air rises and expands, the temperature decreases at the dry adiabatic lapse rate (9.8 °C per kilometre, or roughly 23 °F per mile) throughout most of the boundary layer. Near Earth's heated surface, air temperature decreases superadiabatically (at a lapse rate greater than the dry adiabatic lapse rate). In contrast, during clear, calm nights, turbulence tends to cease, and radiational cooling (net loss of heat) from the surface results in an air temperature that increases with height above the surface. When the rate of temperature decrease with height exceeds the adiabatic lapse rate for a region of the atmosphere, turbulence is generated. This is due to the convective overturn of the air as the warmer lower-level air rises and mixes with the cooler air aloft. In this situation, since the environmental lapse rate is greater than the adiabatic lapse rate, an ascending parcel of air remains warmer than the surrounding ambient air even though the parcel is both cooling and expanding. Evidence of this overturn is produced in the form of bubbles, or eddies, of warmer air. The larger bubbles often have sufficient buoyant energy to penetrate the top of the boundary layer. The subsequent rapid air displacement brings air from aloft into the boundary layer, thereby deepening the layer. Under these conditions of atmospheric instability, the air aloft cools according to the environmental lapse rate faster than the rising air is cooling at the adiabatic lapse rate. The air above the boundary layer replaces the rising air and undergoes compressional warming as it descends. As a result, this entrained air heats the boundary layer.

Hamartia (hah-mahr-TEE-uh)

a flaw in character that brings about the downfall of the hero of a tragedy : tragic flaw Hamartia arose from the Greek verb hamartanein, meaning "to miss the mark" or "to err." Aristotle introduced the term in the Poetics to describe the error of judgment which ultimately brings about the tragic hero's downfall. As you can imagine, the word is most often found in literary criticism. However, media writers occasionally employ the word when discussing the unexplainable misfortune or missteps of celebrities regarded as immortal gods and goddesses before being felled by their own shortcomings. For example, a writer for The New Republic in an April 2018 review of Chappaquiddick (a movie about U.S. Senator Ted Kennedy) comments that "Kennedy's ruthlessness and ambition, which are treated as the family's hamartia in Chappaquiddick, are swept under the rug of his compassion."

Farrier

a person who shoes horses Farrier is now usually applied specifically to a blacksmith who specializes in shoeing horses, a skill that requires not only the ability to shape and fit horseshoes, but also the ability to clean, trim, and shape a horse's hooves. When farrier first appeared in English (as ferrour), it referred to someone who not only shoed horses, but who provided general veterinary care for them as well. Middle English ferrour was borrowed from the Anglo-French word of the same form, which referred to a blacksmith who shoes horses. That word derives from the verb ferrer ("to shoe horses"), which can ultimately be traced back to Latin ferrum, meaning "iron."

Monological

a prolonged talk or discourse by a single speaker, especially one dominating or monopolizing a conversation.

Bon vivant (bahn-vee-VAHNT)

a sociable person who has cultivated and refined tastes especially with respect to food and drink Fans of fine French wine and cuisine won't be surprised to hear that the French language gave us a number of words for those who enjoy good living and good eating. Gourmet, gourmand, and gastronome come from French, as does bon vivant. In the late 17th century, English-speakers borrowed this French phrase, which literally means "good liver." No, we don't mean liver, as in the organ. We mean liver, as in "one who lives (in a specified way)"—in this case, "one who lives well."

Weal (WEEL)

a sound, healthy, or prosperous state : well-being Weal is most often used in contexts referring to the general good. One reads, for example, of the "public weal" or the "common weal." The latter of these led to the formation of the noun commonweal, a word that once referred to an organized political entity, such as a nation or state, but today usually means "the general welfare." The word commonwealth shares these meanings, but its situation is reversed; the "political entity" sense of commonwealth is still current whereas the "general welfare" sense has become archaic. At one time, weal and wealth were also synonyms; both meant "riches" ("all his worldly weal") and "well-being." Both words stem from wela, the Old English word for "well-being," and are closely related to the Old English word for "well."

Bookstall

a table or a very small shop with an open front where books, magazines, etc. are sold

Bas-relief (bah-rih-LEEF)

art : sculptural relief in which the projection from the surrounding surface is slight and no part of the modeled form is undercut; also : sculpture executed in bas-relief The best way to understand the meaning of bas-relief is to see one—and the easiest way to do that is to look at a penny, nickel, or other coin and examine the raised images on it; they're all bas-reliefs. English speakers adopted bas-relief from French (where bas means "low" and relief means "raised work") during the mid-1600s; earlier, we borrowed the synonymous basso-relievo from Italian. The French and Italian terms have common ancestors (and, in fact, the French word is likely a translation of the Italian), but English speakers apparently borrowed the two independently. Bas-relief is more prevalent in English today, although the Italian-derived term has not disappeared completely from the language.

Compendium; Compendious (kum-PEN-dee-us)

brief, comprehensive summary; marked by brief expression of a comprehensive matter : concise and comprehensive Compendious is applied to things that are brief in statement or expression, but oftentimes the brevity is chock-full of meaning. Its synonyms run the gamut, giving us concise, terse, succinct, pithy, laconic, and summary. Concise simply suggests the removal of all that is superfluous or elaborative ("a concise description"). Terse implies pointed conciseness ("a terse reply"). Succinct implies the greatest possible compression ("a succinct letter of resignation"). Pithy adds the implication of richness of meaning or substance ("pithy one-liners"). Laconic implies brevity to the point of seeming rude or indifferent ("a laconic stranger"). Summary suggests the stating of main points with no elaboration ("a summary listing of the year's main events").

Propitiatory

conciliatory, appeasing, mitigating

Plethora

excess; overabundance

Contrite

feeling or showing sorrow and remorse for a sin or shortcoming A person who is contrite may have rubbed someone the wrong way and caused bruised feelings—and there is a hint about the origins of the word in that thought. Contrite came to English by way of Anglo-French from the Latin verb conterere, meaning "to grind" or "to bruise." Conterere, in turn, was formed by combining the prefix com-, meaning "with" or "together," and terere, "to rub." If you've guessed that trite is a cousin of contrite (through terere), you are correct. Other terere descendants in English include detriment and very possibly the familiar verb try.

Millefleur (meel-FLER)

having an allover pattern of small flowers and plants Millefleur (which can also be spelled millefleurs) came directly from French into English in the 17th century as a word for a perfume distilled from several different kinds of flowers. The literal meaning of mille fleurs in French is "a thousand flowers," so it is easy to see how millefleur came to be applied to patterns or backgrounds of many tiny flowers or plants. A similarly colorful extension of "a thousand flowers" can be seen in the word millefiori. That term, which refers to ornamental glass characterized by multicolored flower-like designs, comes from mille fiori, the Italian phrase meaning "a thousand flowers."

Lucubration (loo-kyuh-BRAY-shun)

laborious or intensive study; also : the product of such study — usually used in plural Imagine someone studying through the night by the light of a dim candle or lamp. That image demonstrates perfectly the most literal sense of lucubration. Our English word derives from the Latin verb lucubrare, meaning "to work by lamplight." (That Latin root is related to lux, the Latin word for "light.") In its earliest known English uses, lucubration named both nocturnal study itself and a written product thereof. By the 1800s, however, the term had been broadened to refer to any intensive study (day or night), or a composition, especially a weighty one, generated as a result of such study. Nowadays, lucubration is most often used in its plural form and implies pompous or stuffy scholarly writing.

Groveling

lie or move abjectly on the ground with one's face downward. "she was groveling on the floor in fear" act in an obsequious manner in order to obtain someone's forgiveness or favor. "everyone expected me to grovel with gratitude"

Rash

marked by or proceeding from undue haste or lack of deliberation or caution The earliest known uses of rash (then spelled rasch) occur in a northern dialect of 15th-century Middle English. Its earlier origins are not known for sure, though it is clearly related to a number of similar words in the Germanic languages, including Old High German rasc ("fast, hurried, strong, clever"), Old Norse röskr ("brave, vigorous"), and Middle Dutch rasch ("quick, nimble, agile, vigorous"). It is not, however, related to the English noun rash ("an eruption on the body," as in a "skin rash"). The noun rash, which first appeared in English around 1700, comes by way of French and Vulgar Latin from Latin rasus, the past participle of radere ("to scrape" or "to shave").

Pedagogical (ped-uh-GAH-jih-kul)

of, relating to, or befitting a teacher or education Pedagogical, which has the somewhat less common variant form pedagogic, was coined in the early 17th century from a Greek adjective of the same meaning. That adjective, paidagōgikos, in turn, derives from the noun paidagōgos, meaning "teacher." The English word pedagogue (which can simply mean "teacher" but usually suggests one who is particularly pedantic or dull) derives from the same root. Although the words educational and teacher make the grade in most contexts, pedagogical and pedagogue are useful additions to the class.

Zero-sum

of, relating to, or being a situation (such as a game or relationship) in which a gain for one side entails a corresponding loss for the other side Does game theory sound like fun? It can be—if you are a mathematician or economist who needs to analyze a competitive situation in which the outcome is determined by the choices of the players and chance. Game theory was introduced by mathematician John von Neumann and economist Oskar Morgenstern in their 1944 book The Theory of Games and Economic Behavior. In game theory, a zero-sum game is one, such as chess or checkers, where each player has a clear purpose that is completely opposed to that of the opponent. In economics, a situation is zero-sum if the gains of one party are exactly balanced by the losses of another and no net gain or loss is created. (Such situations are rare.)

Ecstatic (ek-STAT-ik)

of, relating to, or marked by ecstasy Ecstatic has been used in our language since the late 16th century, and the noun ecstasy is even older, dating from the 1300s. Both derive from the Greek verb existanai ("to put out of place"), which was used in a Greek phrase meaning "to drive someone out of his or her mind." That seems an appropriate history for words that can describe someone who is nearly out of their mind with intense emotion. In early use, ecstatic was sometimes linked to mystic trances, out-of-body experiences, and temporary madness. Today, however, it typically implies a state of enthusiastic excitement or intense happiness.

Tempestuous (tem-PESS-chuh-wus)

of, relating to, or resembling a violent storm : turbulent, stormy Time is sometimes marked in seasons, and seasons are associated with the weather. This explains how tempus, the Latin word for "time," could have given rise to an English adjective for things turbulent and stormy. Tempus is the root behind Old Latin tempestus, meaning "season," and Late Latin tempestuosus, the direct ancestor of tempestuous. As you might expect, tempus is also the root, by way of the Latin tempestas ("season, weather, or storm"), of the noun tempest. Tempus may also be akin to the Latin verb temperare ("to moderate, mix, or temper"), which made its way through Anglo-French to become the English temper.

Leonine (LEE-uh-nyne)

of, relating to, suggestive of, or resembling a lion Leonine derives from Latin leo, meaning "lion," which in turn comes from Greek leōn. Leōn gave us an interesting range of words: leopard (which derives from leōn combined with pardos, a Greek word for a panther-like animal); dandelion (which came by way of the Anglo-French phrase dent de lion—literally, "lion's tooth"); and chameleon (which combines leōn with the Greek chamai, meaning "on the ground"); as well as the names Leo, Leon, and Leonard. But the dancer's and gymnast's leotard is not named for its wearer's cat-like movements. Rather, it was simply named after its inventor, Jules Leotard, a 19th-century French aerial gymnast.

Adversary (AD-ver-sair-ee)

one that contends with, opposes, or resists : an enemy or opponent If you've ever had someone turn on you and become your adversary, you've inadvertently lived out the etymology of adversary. The word is from the Latin adjective adverāsarius ("turned toward" or "antagonistic toward"), which in turn can be traced back to the verb advertere, meaning "to turn toward." Advertere itself derives from ad- and vertere ("to turn"), and vertere is the source of a number of English words. Along with obvious derivatives, like inadvertent and adverse, are some surprises, including anniversary, vertebra, and prose—the last of which traces back to the Latin prosus, a contraction of proversus, the past participle of provertere ("to turn forward").

Grinch

one who spoils the pleasure of others : killjoy, spoilsport When Theodor Geisel, better known as Dr. Seuss, wrote the children's book How the Grinch Stole Christmas in 1957, he probably had no idea that grinch would soon enter the general lexicon of English. Like Charles Dickens' Ebenezer Scrooge (whose name has become synonymous with miser), the Grinch changes his ways by the story's end, but it's the unreformed character who "hated Christmas! The whole Christmas season!" who sticks in our minds. The ill-natured Grinch, with his heart "two sizes too small," provides us with a lively symbol of someone we love to hate, and his name has thus come to refer to any disgruntled grump who ruins the pleasure of others.

Palmary (PAL-muh-ree)

outstanding, best It was the ancient Romans who first used palmarius to describe someone or something extraordinary. Palmarius literally translates as "deserving the palm." But what does that mean exactly? Was it inspired by palms of hands coming together in applause? That would be a good guess, but the direct inspiration for palmarius was the palm leaf given to a victor in a sports competition. That other palm—the one on the hand—is loosely related. The Romans thought the palm tree's leaves resembled an outstretched palm of the hand; they thus used their word palma for both meanings, just as we do with palm in English. Now, when we award a noun with the modifier palmary, it signifies that thing as the choicest among possible examples.

Peer-to-peer

relating to, using, or being a network by which computers operated by individuals can share information and resources directly without relying on a dedicated central server The term peer-to-peer is a relatively recent addition to the English language, being little more than a half-century old. In its earliest known uses from the 1960s, it referred to something that occurs directly between human peers, people who are similar in age, grade, or status. It can still be found in this use in phrases such as "peer-to-peer tutoring." With the emergence of computer networking, peer-to-peer began to be used in reference to a system of computers that are able to communicate directly with one another without the mediation of a centralized server. Since the turn of the 21st century, peer-to-peer lending—the borrowing and lending of money through online services—has become increasingly common. You might also encounter peer-to-peer in the techy abbreviated form P2P, as in "P2P networking."

Futhark (FOO-thahrk)

the runic [1: any of the characters of any of several alphabets used by the Germanic peoples from about the 3rd to the 13th centuries] alphabet : any of several alphabets used by the Germanic peoples from about the 3rd to the 13th centuries The word futhark refers to a writing system used by Germanic peoples, and especially by the Scandinavians and Anglo-Saxons, from about the third to the 13th centuries. Its origin is unclear, but a likely theory is that it was developed by the Goths from the Etruscan alphabet of northern Italy, with perhaps some aspects being influenced by the Latin alphabet of the first and second centuries. The word futhark itself comes from the sounds of the first six letters used in the earliest of the main runic script varieties: f, u, th, a, r, k. While eventually fully displaced by the Latin alphabet, futhark was still used occasionally for charms and memorial inscriptions in Scandinavia into the 16th and 17th centuries.

Embezzle

to appropriate (something, such as property entrusted to one's care) fraudulently to one's own use English has a lot of verbs that mean "to steal," including pilfer, rob, swipe, plunder, filch, and thieve. Embezzle differs from these by stressing the improper appropriation of property to which a person is entrusted—often in the form of company funds. First appearing in English in the 15th century, embezzle derives via Middle English from the Anglo-French embesiller, meaning "to make away," formed from the prefix en- and the verb besiller, meaning "to steal or plunder." Related to embezzle is bezzle, a verb used in some British English dialects to mean "to waste or plunder" or "to drink or eat to excess."

Impugn (im-PYOON)

to assail by words or arguments : oppose or attack as false or lacking integrity When you impugn, you hazard repugnant pugnacity. More simply put, you risk insulting someone so greatly that they may punch you in response. The belligerent implications of impugn are to be expected in a word that derives from the Latin verb pugnare, which means "to fight." In its earliest known English uses in the 1300s, impugn could refer to a physical attack (as in, "the troops impugned the city") as well as to figurative assaults involving verbal contradiction or dispute. Over time, though, the sense of physical battling has become obsolete and the "calling into question" sense has predominated. As you might expect, pugnare also gave English other fighting words, including repugnant and pugnacity.

Furnish

to equip with what is needed; to provide

Aggress (uh-GRESS)

to make an attack : to act aggressively Aggress and its more familiar relatives aggression and aggressive derive from the Latin verb aggredī, meaning "to approach, attack, or undertake." Although the modern word aggress carries only the second of these three meanings, the word could when it was first used in English in the 16th century also mean "to approach." That use is now obsolete. There also exists a noun aggress, which is too rare to qualify for entry in even our unabridged dictionary. It typically means "an attack," but also has an obsolete meaning of "an approach."

Dissipation

wasteful spending, squandering