adj 1*a: sooty b: obscure, murky 2: having a dark or dusky color *During the Industrial Revolution, London might have been described as a fuliginous city clinking and clanging with the sounds of machinery.
DID YOU KNOW?
“Fuliginous” is one of those words with a dark and dirty past. It derives from fuligo, the Latin word for “soot,” and incidentally is the only entry among the more than 470,000 in Webster’s Third New International Dictionary, Unabridged to include that root in its etymology. English-speakers have been using “fuliginous” to describe dense fogs, malevolent clouds, and overworked chimney sweeps since the early 1620s.
lothario
n : a man whose chief interest is seducing women Mary Ann denounced her ex-boyfriend as a conniving lothario who just liked to play the field and had no interest in making a real commitment.
DID YOU KNOW?
In the 1718 play The Fair Penitent by the English dramatist Nicholas Rowe, Lothario is a notorious seducer, extremely attractive but haughty and unfeeling. After the play was published, the character of Lothario became a stock figure in English literature. For example, Samuel Richardson specifically modeled the character of Lovelace on Lothario in his 1748 novel Clarissa. As the character became well known, his name became progressively more generic, and since the 18th century the word “lothario” has denoted any foppish, unscrupulous rake.
vinaceous
adj : of the color of red wine At the art museum, we saw a large portrait of Queen Mary wearing a magnificent vinaceous dress befitting her royal splendor.
DID YOU KNOW?
First recorded in English in 1688, “vinaceous” has flourished in the earthy lexicon of horticulture (the vinaceous shades of petals) and mycology (the vinaceous cap of a mushroom). It has also taken flight in the ornithological world as a descriptive word for the unique dark-red coloring of some birds, like the vinaceous amazon or vinaceous rosefinch. You probably won’t encounter these exotic birds in your neighborhood, but you might see someone tossing a vinaceous Frisbee or jogging by in a vinaceous T-shirt.
factotum
n *1: a person having many diverse activities or responsibilities 2: a general servant *Carlos doesn’t mind being a factotum for the sales representatives, because he knows that his internship will upgrade his resumé.
DID YOU KNOW?
“Do everything!” That’s a tall order, but it’s exactly what a factotum is expected to do. It’s also a literal translation of the New Latin factotum, which in turn traces to the Latin words facere (“to do”) and totum (“everything”). In the 16th century, “factotum” was often used in English as if it were a surname, paired with first names to create personalities such as “Johannes Factotum” (literally “John Do-Everything”). Back then, it wasn’t necessarily desirable to be called a factotum; the term was a synonym of “meddler” or “busybody.” Now the word is more often used for a handy, versatile individual responsible for many different tasks.
hegemony
n *1: dominant influence or authority over others 2: the social, cultural, ideological, or economic influence exerted by a dominant group *The nation maintained unrelenting hegemony over its young, struggling colonies.
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“Hegemony” comes to English from the Greek hēgemonia, a noun formed from the verb hēgeisthai (“to lead”), which also gave us our word “exegesis” (“exposition” or “explanation”). First used in English in the mid-1500s in reference to the control once wielded by the ancient Greek states, “hegemony” came to refer to authority exerted by other nations as well. By the 20th century, it was also being used to denote 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.
Annie Oakley
n : a free ticketThe sales representative gave her big-spending client a pair of Annie Oakleys to the golf tournament.
DID YOU KNOW?
A star in Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show, Phoebe Anne Oakley Moses (1860–1926) astonished the crowds with feats of marksmanship such as shooting the spots out of playing cards. It wasn’t long before her audiences noticed that the shot-out cards looked like tickets punched by train conductors. By 1910, the name Annie Oakley was synonymous not only with sharpshooting but also with the ticket/playing card connection, and complimentary tickets have been “Annie Oakleys” ever since.
sylph
n 1: an elemental being in the theory of Paracelsus that inhabits air *2: a slender graceful woman or girl*“The farmer’s teenage daughter—a sylph in a Metallica T-shirt—elbowed her dad.”—GERRI HIRSHEY, FOOD & WINE, SEPTEMBER 2001
DID YOU KNOW?
Paracelsus, a 16th-century German-Swiss physician, concocted an elaborate theory of ruling “elemental spirits”: gnomes controlled the earth; salamanders, fire; undines, water; and sylphs (graceful beings whose name in English is from New Latin sylphus), the air. It’s hard to believe that Paracelsus had his feet on the ground, but those fantastic ideas were balanced with an impressive array of solid medical discoveries. In fact, many of his scientific contributions are still highly respected, although his sylphs have long since been discounted as fairy-tale creatures. They remain only in literature, art, and ballet, often depicted as enchantresses.
indissoluble
adj : not dissoluble; especially : incapable of being annulled, undone, or broken : permanent The contract was considered indissoluble until the new lawyer got hold of it.
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The Latin adjective dissolubilis gave us “dissoluble” (“capable of being dissolved”), which first appeared in print in 1534, followed rapidly by the addition of “in-” to make its antonym in 1542. Dissolubilis derives from dissolvere (“to loosen”), which not surprisingly is also the source of “dissolve” and “dissolvable,” among other words. Is there an “indissolvable”? Yes, but it’s archaic and exceedingly rare. The word most likely to be used for things that cannot be dissolved in a liquid is “insoluble.” “Indissoluble” generally refers to entities such as promises or treaties that cannot be dissolved.
peloton
n : the main body of riders in a bicycle raceThousands of cycling fans lined the race route, relaxing in lawn chairs as they waited for the peloton to speed by.
DID YOU KNOW?
If you’ve ever watched the Tour de France, you’ve seen the peloton—the seemingly endless flow of brightly colored riders making up the central group. In French, peloton literally means “ball,” but it’s most often used for a grouping of competitors in a race or other sporting event. French peloton can also mean “squad” or “platoon,” so it should come as no surprise that it’s the source of our word “platoon.”
dross
n 1: the scum that forms on the surface of molten metal 2: waste or foreign matter *3: something that is base, trivial, or inferior *Summer was supposed to be the time for blockbusters, but that season’s movies were just so much dross.
DID YOU KNOW?
“Dross” has been part of the English language since Anglo-Saxon times; one 19th-century book on Old English vocabulary dates it back to A.D. 1050. Its Old English ancestors are related to Germanic and Scandinavian words for “dregs” (as in “the dregs of the coffee”) and, like “dregs,” “dross” is a word for the less than desirable parts of something. Over the years, the relative worthlessness of dross has often been set in contrast to the value of gold, as in British poet Christina Rossetti’s “The Lowest Room” (1875): “Besides, those days were golden days, / Whilst these are days of dross.”
golem
n 1: an artificial being in Hebrew folklore endowed with life *2: someone or something resembling a golem *With the flick of a switch, the scientist brought his creation to life, then watched with awe as the golem rose from the table.
DID YOU KNOW?
The Hebrew ancestor of our word “golem” meant “shapeless mass,” and the original golems started as lumps of clay that were formed into figures and brought to life by means of a charm or a combination of letters forming a sacred word. In the Middle Ages, a golem was the perfect servant; his only fault was that he was sometimes too literal or mechanical in fulfilling his master’s orders. In the 16th century the golem was thought of as a protector of the Jews in times of persecution, but the idea of bringing life to an inanimate object (especially one that looked like a person) must have felt a little creepy even then. By the late 1800s, the golem had gone from protector to a human-made monster that inspired many of the back-from-the-dead creations of classic horror fiction.
diaphanous
adj *1: of so fine a texture as to be transparent 2: characterized by extreme delicacy of form : ethereal 3: insubstantial, vague *The honeymoon suite is furnished with an antique four-poster bed enveloped in a diaphanous curtain.
DID YOU KNOW?
Can you guess which of the following words come from the same Greek root as “diaphanous”?
| epiphany sycophant fancy | emphasis phenomenon phase |
lido
n : a fashionable beach resort The warm weather brought large numbers of city folk to the lido for a day in the sun.
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The original Lido is a beach resort near Venice, Italy. The town’s name comes from the Italian lido, which means “shore” or “bank” and derives from litus, the Latin word for “shore.” By the mid-19th century, Lido’s reputation as a chic vacation destination for the well-to-do was the envy of seaside resorts everywhere. English-speaking social climbers generalized the town’s name and started using it for any fashionably Lidoesque beach.
embonpoint
n : plumpness of person : stoutnessThe police commissioner was a man of stately embonpoint who walked with a heavy step as he entered the room.
DID YOU KNOW?
“Embonpoint” is most often used to describe people of wide but not necessarily unattractive girth. Derived from en bon point, a phrase from Middle French that means “in good condition,” the word was first used as a noun in English in the 17th century. It has subsequently appeared in works by Charlotte Brontë (“a form decidedly inclined to embonpoint”—Shirley), James Fenimore Cooper (“an embonpoint that was just sufficient to distinguish her from most of her companions”—Home as Found), and George Eliot (“as erect in her comely embonpoint as a statue of Ceres”—Adam Bede), among others.
proclivity
n : an inclination or predisposition; especially : a strong inherent inclination toward something objectionable Our proclivity to remember things selectively strongly suggests that memory cannot always be relied upon.
DID YOU KNOW?
Do you have a penchant for pinning down the history of a word? What about a propensity to repeat one of our featured words several times in the course of the day? Or a predilection for using lots of synonyms? If the last is true, you’ll be glad to learn that “proclivity” (from clivus, the Latin word for “slope”) refers to a tendency toward something bad, “penchant” implies an irresistible attraction, “propensity” suggests an often uncontrollable inclination, and “predilection” denotes a strong liking derived from one’s temperament.
con amore
adv 1: with love, devotion, or zest *2: in a tender manner—used as a direction in music *Although we couldn’t understand her words, the opera singer sang the aria con amore and we felt the emotion they expressed.
DID YOU KNOW?
“No matter what the object is, whether business, pleasures, or the fine arts; whoever pursues them to any purpose must do so con amore.” Wise words—and the 18th-century Englishman who wrote them under the pseudonym Sir Thomas Fitzosborne may have been drawing on his own experience. At the time those words were written (c. 1740), the author, whose real name was William Melmoth, had recently abandoned the practice of law to pursue his interests in writing and classical scholarship, which were apparently his true loves. In any case, by making use of “con amore,” a term borrowed from Italian, Melmoth gave us the first known use of the word in English prose.
ameliorate
v *1: to make better or more tolerable 2: to grow better *Aaron’s company is working on a software update designed to ameliorate the security problems of the operating system.
DID YOU KNOW?
“Ameliorate” derives from melior, a Latin adjective meaning “better,” and is a synonym of the verbs “better” and “improve.” When is it better to use “ameliorate”? If a situation referred to is bad, “ameliorate” makes the conditions more tolerable. Thus one might refer to drugs that ameliorate the side effects of chemotherapy, a loss of wages ameliorated by unemployment benefits, or a harsh law ameliorated by special exceptions. “Improve” and “better” apply when what is being made better can be good or bad (“the weather improved,” “she bettered her lot in life”), and they should certainly be chosen over “ameliorate” when something good is getting better still (“improved his successful program,” “bettered her impressive scores”).
billet-doux
n : a love letter “The love letters of practiced writers may be the most articulate, but one needn’t be a phrasemaker to write a beautiful billet-doux. . . .”—ELI GOTTLIEB, ELLE, FEBRUARY 1991
DID YOU KNOW?
The first recorded use of the French term billet doux (literally, “sweet letter”) in an English context occurs in John Dryden’s 1673 play Marriage-a-la-Mode. In the play, Dryden pokes fun at linguistic Francophiles in English society through the comic character Melanthe, who is described by her prospective lover Rodophil as follows: “No lady can be so curious of a new fashion as she is of a new French word; she’s the very mint of the nation, and as fast as any bullion comes out of France, coins it immediately into our language.” True to form, Melanthe describes Rodophil with the following words: “Let me die, but he’s a fine man; he sings and dances en Francais and writes billets-doux to a miracle.”
convoke
v : to call together to a meeting In 1907 Theodore Roosevelt convoked a conference at The Hague to discuss arms limitation.
DID YOU KNOW?
The Latin noun vox (“voice”) and the related verb vocare (“to call”) have given rise to many English words, including “convoke.” Other English descendants of those roots are usually spelled with “voc” or “vok” 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 just a few other vox/vocare derivatives.
Davy Jones’s locker
n : the bottom of the ocean Although his ship was eventually sent to Davy Jones’s locker, American revolutionist John Paul Jones stayed true to his words: “I have not yet begun to fight!”
DID YOU KNOW?
Sailors have long used Davy Jones as the name of a personified evil spirit of the ocean depths, but no one knows exactly why. Some claim the original Davy Jones was a British pirate, but the evidence that this person existed is lacking. Others swear he was a London pub owner who kept drugged ale in a special locker, served it to the unwary, then had them shanghaied. But the theory considered most plausible is that “Davy” was inspired by Saint David, the patron saint of Wales. (Saint David was often invoked by Welsh sailors.) “Jones” is traced to Jonah, the biblical figure who was swallowed by a whale.
rotisserie
adj : relating to a sports league consisting of imaginary teams whose performance is based on the statistics of actual players Miguel watched the game intently, rooting not only for the home club but also for the players on his rotisserie team.
DID YOU KNOW?
Fantasy sports such as rotisserie baseball have become popular even among lukewarm sports fans. Invented in 1979 by publishing consultant Daniel Okrent, rotisserie baseball allows fans to follow their pastime interactively by compiling teams of real-life players and rating the success of their team based on those players. We can attribute this new sense of the word “rotisserie” to La Rotisserie Française, a now-defunct Manhattan restaurant where Okrent and other baseball fans gathered to perfect the rules of the game and to compare statistics. Variations of the game have since spread to a number of other major sports, including football and basketball.
heterodox
adj *1: unorthodox, unconventional 2: holding unorthodox opinions or doctrines *Jack still describes his sister as “out there” even though he’s come to accept many of her heterodox beliefs.
DID YOU KNOW?
“Orthodoxy . . . is my doxy—heterodoxy is another man’s doxy,” quipped 18th-century bishop William Warburton. He was only punning, but it’s true that 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, the Greek doxa, which means “opinion.” “Heterodox” derives from a combination of doxa plus heter-, a prefix meaning “other” or “different”; “orthodoxy” pairs doxa with orth-, meaning “correct” or “straight.”
conclave
n *1: a private meeting or secret assembly 2: a gathering of a group or association *“The shadowy world of Ministers’ meetings and security service conclaves . . . was never explored.”—MARY RIDDELL, THE OBSERVER, FEBRUARY 2004
DID YOU KNOW?
“Conclave” derives from a Latin word meaning “room that can be locked up”—a meaning of “conclave” that’s now obsolete. Today, “conclave” refers not to the locked rooms but to the private meetings and secret assemblies that occur within them. “Conclave” is especially likely to refer to a meeting of Roman Catholic cardinals who have secluded themselves to choose a pope, but the word can refer to other types of private or secret meetings as well. The meaning of “conclave” has also expanded to include gatherings that are not necessarily secret or private but simply involve people with shared interests (for example, a fraternal society or political group).
blithesome
adj : gay, merry Quoting Mark Twain’s fictional character Laura, Margaret observed that she’d never before noticed “how blithesome the world was.”
DID YOU KNOW?
“Blithesome” comes from “blithe,” a word that has been part of English since before the 12th century. “Blithe” can mean “casual” and “heedless” as well as “joyful” and “lighthearted,” but “blithesome” obviously makes use of only the latter sense. It didn’t show up in print in English until 1724 and is now relatively uncommon, but you’ll find it in the works of such authors as Charles Dickens, Sir Walter Scott, Mark Twain, and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.
oneiric
adj : of or relating to dreams : dreamy Many of Salvador Dali’s paintings have an oneiric quality, filled with objects (such as melting clocks) that we could only conjure in our imaginations.
DID YOU KNOW?
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 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 current interest among English scholars in Oneirocritica, a book about dream interpretation by the second-century Greek soothsayer Artemidorus Daldianus.
gorgonize
v : to have a paralyzing or mesmerizing effect on The bus driver was famous for his ability to gorgonize an unruly child with a single glance.
DID YOU KNOW?
The Gorgons (from the Greek adjective gorgos, meaning “terrifying”) were three winged female monsters of Greek mythology who had snakes for hair and an ability to turn anyone who looked at them into stone. The infamous Medusa was their chief; when she was slain by the hero Perseus, her severed head retained the power of turning anyone who looked on it to stone. In modern parlance, to gorgonize someone is to make him or her feel (metaphorically) petrified, usually by means of an intimidating look or gaze.
pecuniary
adj *1: consisting of or measured in money 2: of or relating to money *Marcus was more than happy to water Rachel’s plants while she was away and refused any pecuniary compensation for the job.
DID YOU KNOW?
“Pecuniary” comes from the Latin pecunia, which means “money.” Both this root and the Latin peculium, which means “private property,” are related to the Latin noun for cattle, pecus. In early times, cattle were viewed as a trading commodity (as they still are in some parts of the world), 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 of “embezzle.” In peculium you might also recognize the word “peculiar,” which originally meant “exclusively one’s own” before acquiring its current meaning of “strange.”
scupper
v, British : to defeat or put an end to : do in The plans to build a new stadium were eventually scuppered by the release of the budget committee’s report.
DID YOU KNOW?
All efforts to figure out the origin of today’s word have been defeated, including attempts to connect it to the noun “scupper,” a 500-year-old word for a drain opening in the side of a ship. (The theory that the blood of shipboard battle was “scuppered” when it was washed down the scuppers lacks documentation.) All we know for sure is that “scupper” meant “to ambush and massacre” in 19th-century military slang. Then, just before the century turned, it found its place in a magazine story in the sense of simply “doing (someone) in.” The modern application to things rather than people didn’t appear until a couple of decades into the 20th century.
climacteric
n *1: a major turning point or critical stage 2a: menopause b: a period in the life of a male corresponding to female menopause *That year, Dante realized that he had reached a climacteric in his life and would soon have to leave his ivory tower to face the real world.
DID YOU KNOW?
“Climacteric” comes from the Greek word klimaktēr, meaning “critical point” or, literally, “rung of a ladder.” English-speakers have long used “climacteric” for those inevitable big moments encountered on the metaphorical ladder of life. The major climacterics in a person’s life were once thought to occur in years denoted by multiples of 7 or 9 or only in the odd multiples of 7 (7, 21, 35, etc.). The grand (or great) climacteric was held to occur in the 63rd (7 x; 9) or 81st (9 x 9) year of life. Today, “climacteric” can refer to male or female menopause, which typically occurs between the ages of 45 and 55, but the general “turning point” sense is not usually tied to a specific age.
Gretna Green
n : a place where many eloping couples are married Because Nevada has no waiting period for a marriage license, Las Vegas has traditionally been an ideal Gretna Green for runaway lovers.
DID YOU KNOW?
In 18th-century England, no one could marry without parental consent until age 21. The Scottish were more lenient, allowing young people to marry at 16 without parental permission. England also had rules that made it difficult to marry quickly, whereas Scottish law required only that couples declare their desire to be married in front of witnesses before tying the knot. So it isn’t surprising that many eloping English couples ran to Gretna Green, a small village on the Scottish border. Wedding ceremonies there were typically performed by the blacksmith at a roadside tollhouse, but it was all perfectly legal.
profligate
adj 1: completely given up to dissipation and licentiousness *2: wildly extravagant : prodigal *In late summer, we became utterly profligate in our consumption of tomatoes, devouring as many of them as we could before the first nipping frost.
DID YOU KNOW?
The royal record keeper who reported the “profligation of the knights” 477 years ago didn’t mean the knights were indulging in excesses; he meant they were thoroughly defeated in battle. “Profligation” came from the Latin verb profligare, which meant “to strike down,” “to destroy,” or “to overwhelm.” When the adjective “profligate” first appeared in print in English in the 1500s, it meant “overthrown” or “overwhelmed.” By 1647 it had acquired its “abandoned or given over to vice” sense, and by 1779 it was being used with the meaning “wildly extravagant.”
nebbish
n : a timid, meek, or ineffectual person As a teenager, Lyle was a nebbish who could never stand up to the bullies in his class.
DID YOU KNOW?
“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 such a timid word, its journey from Yiddish to English wasn’t accomplished in a single bold leap of spelling and meaning. In its earliest English uses in the 1890s, it was spelled “nebbich” and used interjectionally as an expression of dismay.
lymphatic
adj 1a: relating to or produced by lymph b: conveying lymph *2: lacking physical or mental energy : sluggish *“Wrench had a wretched lymphatic wife who made a mummy of herself indoors in a large shawl. . . .”—GEORGE ELIOT, MIDDLEMARCH
DID YOU KNOW?
Lymph is a pale liquid in the body that helps maintain fluid balance and removes bacteria from tissues. Today, we understand that lymph plays an important role in the body’s immune system. In the past, however, it was commonly believed that an excess of lymph caused sluggishness—hence the “sluggish” meaning of “lymphatic.” The word “lymph” comes from Latin lympha (“water” or “water goddess”), which itself may be a modification of the Greek word nymphē, meaning “nymph.” Both “lymph” and its related adjective “lymphatic” have been used in English since the mid-17th century.
interstice
n : a little space between two things : chink, crevice Ronnie crept up to the wooden fence and peered through the interstice to spy on his new neighbor.
DID YOU KNOW?
You don’t need to read between the lines to understand the history of “interstice”; its etymology is plain to see. The word derives from the Latin interstitium, which is itself formed from the prefix inter-, “between,” and -stes, which means “standing.” Interstices are the cracks and crevices of life, and the word is often used for both the literal and figurative gaps of the world. In modern uses, “interstice” can even refer to gaps in time or to special niches in the larger expanse of something else. Evolutionary biologist Stephen Jay Gould used it, for example, to comment that “Dinosaurs held sway for 100 million years while mammals, all the while, lived as small animals in the interstices of their world.”
zeugma
n : the use of a word to modify or govern two or more words in such a way that it applies to each in a different sense or makes sense with only one“Torpedoes hit their mark! Ship and many hopes sink!” screamed the headline, employing vivid zeugma.
DID YOU KNOW?
“Zeugma,” which has been with us since the 15th century, comes from Greek, where it literally means “a joining.” The Greek word has another connection to English as well. In the early 1970s, a chemistry professor named Paul Lauterbur developed a technique for producing images of internal organs and he called it zeugmatography, because it involved the joining of magnetic fields. The name didn’t stick (the technique is known today as magnetic resonance imaging, or MRI), but Lauterbur was awarded a Nobel prize.
Typhoid Mary
n : one that is by force of circumstances a center from which something undesirable spreads Infected with a virus, a computer in the Lisbon office could potentially have become a Typhoid Mary, wiping out hard drives all over the globe.
DID YOU KNOW?
The original Typhoid Mary was simply a New York City cook who loved her job. Unfortunately, she had been exposed to typhoid, and although she was immune to the disease herself, one of the main ingredients in her dishes was the deadly bacteria that passed it to others. Health officials identified her as Mary Mallon, an Irish-born immigrant, and they quarantined her to stop the spread of the disease. She was released three years later with a warning not to cook professionally, but in 1915 she was discovered working as a cook at a maternity hospital identified as the source of a new typhoid outbreak. She was forcibly returned to quarantine, where she remained until her death in 1938.
gallivant
v : to travel, roam, or move about for pleasure After graduating from college, Maureen spent a year gallivanting all over Europe before coming back home to find a job.
DID YOU KNOW?
Back in the 14th century, a young man of fashion (or a “ladies’ man”) was called a gallant. By the late 1600s, “gallant” was being used as a verb for the process used to win a lady’s heart, i.e., “to court.” Etymologists think 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 irresponsible wandering than indiscreet romancing.
kismet
n, often capitalized : fate Penelope and Richard believe it was kismet that seated them together as strangers on the Orient Express.
DID YOU KNOW?
Can you see yourself tying macramé while drinking coffee and eating sherbet in a minaret? Perhaps that’s your kismet, in which case you will owe much to Turkish and Arabic. We borrowed “kismet” from Turkish in the 1800s, but it ultimately derives from the Arabic qisma, meaning “portion” or “lot.” Several other terms in our bizarre opening question (namely, “macramé,” “coffee,” “sherbet,” and “minaret”) have roots in those languages, too. In the case of “macramé” and “minaret,” there is a little French influence as well. “Coffee” and “macramé” also have Italian relations, and “sherbet” has an ancestor in a Persian name for a type of cold drink.
Lucullan
adj : lavish, luxurious Mayor Shaw treated the whole town to a Lucullan feast on the grounds of his mansion.
DID YOU KNOW?
“Lucullan” echoes the name of Roman general Lucius Licinius Lucullus. The general had a distinguished military career (including the defeat of Mithradates VI Eupator, king of Pontus, 72–71 B.C.), but he’s best remembered for the splendor of his opulent retirement. Living in Rome from 66 B.C. until his death 10 years later, Lucullus established a reputation for magnificent banquets, at which he wined and dined the leading poets, artists, and philosophers of his time. His feasts were sufficiently extravagant to establish a lasting place for his name as a synonym of “lavish” in the English lexicon.
acerbate
v : to irritate, exasperate Jeremy made little whistling noises that acerbated the nerves of everyone who worked near him.
DID YOU KNOW?
The verb “acerbate” was first documented in English sometime around 1730 and is ultimately derived (via the past participle of the Latin verb acerbare) from the Latin acerbus, meaning “harsh” or “bitter.” There’s also an adjective “acerbate,” meaning “irritated, exasperated, harsh,” but it’s used infrequently. These days, the verb turns up fairly often in place of “exacerbate” (“to make worse”), although this sense is not quite common enough yet to be in dictionaries. The use of “acerbate” for “exacerbate” may be an error created by confusing two very similar words, but it’s actually a pretty insightful mistake—“exacerbate” is also from acerbus.
quiddity
n *1: whatever makes something the type that it is : essence 2a: a trifling point b: crotchet, eccentricity *To retain the quiddity of the Victorian building, we hired a contractor who had studied that architectural period.
DID YOU KNOW?
When it comes to synonyms of “quiddity,” the Q’s have it. Consider “quintessence,” synonym of the “essence” 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 eccentricities. “Quiddity” itself derives from the pronoun quis, 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 essential to the development of the English “quiddity.”
brainiac
n : a very intelligent person The company employs an army of brainiacs who are devoted to providing the best in computer game graphics and technology.
DID YOU KNOW?
As Superman fans know, Brainiac was the superintelligent villain in the Superman Action Comics series and its spin-offs. You don’t need X-ray vision to see the connection here—etymologists think Superman’s brainy adversary was probably the inspiration for our term “brainiac.” We didn’t coin the term right away, though. The comic-book series was launched in 1938, and the general use of “brainiac” was first recorded in print in 1982.
valetudinarian
n : a person of a weak or sickly constitution; especially : one whose chief concern is being or becoming a chronic invalid “She told me she had been married fourteen years; she complained of nervous disorders and seemed a great valetudinarian.”—AGNES PORTER, JOURNALS AND LETTERS
DID YOU KNOW?
It’s ironic that “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 be strong” or “to be well.” Most of the English offspring of valēre imply some kind of strength or force (consider, for instance, “valiant,” “prevail,” “valor,” and “value”). But valēre also gave rise to Latin valetudo, which simply refers to the state of one’s health, whether good or bad. In the end “valetudinarian,” with its decidedly sickly spin, was picked up by English-speakers in the early 1700s from the Latin adjective valetudinarius, which means “infirm.”
hie
v *1: to go quickly : hasten 2: to cause (oneself) to go quickly *“Then hie you hence to Friar Laurence’s cell; There stays a husband to make you a wife.” —WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE, ROMEO AND JULIET
DID YOU KNOW?
“Hie” has been part of English since the 12th century, and it stems from the even hoarier hīgian, Old English for “to strive” or “to hasten.” The verb enjoyed a high-popularity period from the 16th to the 19th centuries and was especially big with literary types such as Sir Walter Scott and Charles Dickens. But don’t get the idea that “hie” is a word of the past; it has also appeared in the pages of publications such as Vogue, The New Yorker, and Sports Illustrated.
adduce
v : to offer as example, reason, or proof in discussion or analysis “Leon has made some pretty strong accusations here tonight,” said Tim, “but he has yet to adduce any convincing evidence in support of them.”
DID YOU KNOW?
“Adduce” is just one of a plethora of familiar words that trace to the Latin root ducere, which means “to lead.” Perhaps we can induce you to deduce a few other ducere offspring if we offer a few hints about them. One is another term for kidnapping, one’s a title for a British royal, and one’s a process of abridging or consolidating something. Give up? They are “abduct,” “duke,” and “reduce,” respectively. There are also many others, including “induce,” which means “to persuade” or “to bring about.”
farraginous
adj : consisting of a confused mixture : formed of various materials in no fixed order or arrangement “There are stray stories, or semi-stories, in my three farraginous collections of mostly non-fictional prose.”—JOHN UPDIKE, SUNDAY TIMES (LONDON), JANUARY 8, 1995
DID YOU KNOW?
In Latin, the stem farragin- and the noun farrago both mean “mixture” or, specifically, “mixture of grains for cattle feed.” They derive from far, the Latin name for spelt, a type of grain. In the 1600s, English-speakers began using “farrago” as a noun meaning “hodgepodge” and “farraginous” as an adjective meaning “consisting of a medley.” The creation of the adjective was simply a matter of adding the adjectival suffix “-ous” to “farragin-” (although at least one writer had previously experimented with “farraginary,” employing a different adjectival suffix).
retrodict
v : to utilize present information or ideas to infer or explain (a past event or state of affairs) Geologists have retrodicted the positions of the continents millions of years ago.
DID YOU KNOW?
English-speakers had started using “predict” by at least the early 17th century; it’s a word formed by combining prae-, meaning “before,” and dicere, “to say.” Since the rough translation of “predict” is “to say before,” it’s no surprise that when people in the 1950s wanted a word for “predicting” the past, they created it by combining the word for “backward” (“retro-”) with the “-dict” of “predict.” Other dicere descendants in English include “contradict,” “benediction,” “dictate,” “diction,” “interdict,” “malediction,” and, of course, “dictionary.”
umbra
n 1: a shaded area *2: a cone-shaped part of the shadow of a celestial body from which the light of the sun is completely blocked *The umbra of the moon’s shadow first touched the earth at sunrise in the Pacific and traveled nearly a thousand miles before it made landfall.
DID YOU KNOW?
The Latin word umbra, meaning “shade” or “shadow,” has given English a range of words in addition to “umbra” itself. An umbrella, for example, can provide us with shade from the sun. The connection to shade or shadow in other umbra words is less obvious. Today, to take “umbrage” means to take offense, but in times past people used the word as a synonym of “shade” or “shadow.” Another shadow-to-offense term is “umbrageous,” which can mean “affording shade” (an umbrageous tree) or “inclined to take offense easily.”
florilegium
n : a volume of writings : anthology This florilegium of 19th-century poetry includes a few relatively unknown gems that are sure to delight and inspire.
DID YOU KNOW?
Editors who compile florilegia can be thought of as gathering bouquets of sweet literary blossoms. English-speakers picked up “florilegium” from a New Latin word that derives from the Latin florilegus, which can be translated as “culling flowers.” In fact, “florilegium” initially applied to a collection of flowers, and later to books about flowers, but it wasn’t long before it began to be used for (as the Oxford English Dictionary puts it) “a collection of the flowers of literature.” Interestingly, “florilegium” isn’t the only English collecting term with a floral heritage; its synonym “anthology” comes from the Greek word for “flower gathering.”
perpend
v 1: to reflect on carefully : ponder *2: to be attentive : reflect *Perpend: If you let this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity slip away, you will regret it.
DID YOU KNOW?
“Perpend” is frequently used in the imperative, and as such it can be compared to the phrase “mark my words.” It arrived in English in the 15th century from the Latin verb perpendere, which in turn comes from pendere, meaning “to weigh.” Appropriately, our English word essentially means “to weigh carefully in the mind.” “Perpend” can also be a noun meaning “a brick or large stone reaching through a wall” or “a wall built of such stones,” but that word comes from a Middle French source and is unrelated to the verb.
relict
n 1: a remnant of a formerly widespread plant or animal species that continues to exist in an isolated area *2: something left unchanged *Samuel, with his unbending opposition toward women in higher management, is a relict of the past.
DID YOU KNOW?
The oldest English sense of “relict” is extinct—or at least obsolete. In the 16th century, the word meant “an object esteemed and venerated because of association with a saint or martyr,” but there is no evidence that it’s been used with that meaning since the mid-1700s. “Relict” was also used to refer to a widow at one time, but now that sense is more or less limited to legal uses. You could say it’s fitting that “relict” has outdated senses; after all, it derives ultimately from the Latin verb relinquere, meaning “to leave behind.”
exigent
adj *1: requiring immediate aid or action 2: requiring or calling for much : demanding *The minute they heard the details of the accident, the paramedics knew the situation was exigent.
DID YOU KNOW?
“This writ seemeth to be called an Exigent because it exacteth the party, that is, requireth his expearance or forthcomming, to answer the lawe.” In this 1607 reference to a writ summoning a person on pain of outlawry, writer John Cowell clearly recognized “exigent” as a derivative of the Latin exigere, which meant “to demand.” Over the last five centuries, “exigent” has served as a legal term (as in Cowell’s quote), as well as a noun meaning either “an emergency” or “an end or extremity.” 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.
grimalkin
n : a domestic cat; especially : an old female cat Maizy, the family grimalkin, isn’t as fast as she used to be, but she’s still the best mouse catcher in the neighborhood.
DID YOU KNOW?
In the opening scene of Macbeth, one of the three witches suddenly announces, “I come, Graymalkin.” The witch is responding to the summons of her familiar, or guardian spirit, which is embodied in the form of a cat. Shakespeare’s “graymalkin” literally meant “gray cat.” The “gray” is, of course, the color; the “malkin” was a nickname for Matilda or Maud that came to be used in dialect as a general name for a cat (and sometimes a hare), and for an untidy woman as well. By the 1630s, “graymalkin” had been altered to the modern spelling “grimalkin.”
remora
n : *1: any of various fishes that have a suction disk on the head by means of which they cling especially to other fishes 2: a hindrance*Remoras feed on parasites culled from their host’s skin and scraps from their host’s meals.
DID YOU KNOW?
Also known as “shark suckers” or “suckerfish,” remoras are long, thin, dark fish that live in warm seas throughout the world. The name “remora,” which means “delay” in Latin, arose from an ancient superstition among sailors that remoras had the power to slow or even stop a ship by attaching themselves to it. The poor remora’s reputation isn’t much better today. Even though remoras don’t harm their hosts, they are popularly thought of as unwanted guests that get a free ride and a free meal through the efforts of others. It is therefore common to see “remora” used metaphorically in such contexts as “paparazzi who attach themselves like remoras to celebrities.”
corrigendum
n : an error in a printed work discovered after printing and shown with its correction on a separate sheet Not only was the document itself full of errors, but the attached corrigenda had mistakes as well!
DID YOU KNOW?
If you guessed that “corrigendum” might be connected to the word “correct,” you’re quite right. Both “corrigendum” and “correct” derive from the Latin verb corrigere, which means “to correct.” The noun “corrigendum” and its plural “corrigenda” came to us unaltered from Latin in the early 19th century. The verb “correct” is much older; it’s been part of our language since at least the 14th century. Other descendants of corrigere include “incorrigible” and “escort.”
plenary
adj *1: complete in every respect : absolute, unqualified 2: fully attended or constituted by all entitled to be present *The U.S. Congress has plenary power to pass laws that regulate immigration and naturalization.
DID YOU KNOW?
In the 14th century, the monk Robert of Brunne wrote, “When Arthures court was plener, and alle were comen, fer and ner. . . .” For 200 years, plener (also spelled plenar) served us well for both senses that we reserve for “plenary” today. (Our monk was saying that all the knights of King Arthur’s Round Table were present at court.) 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 scholarly types to prefer purer Latin origins. In the 1500s, English-speakers turned to Late Latin plenarius and came up with “plenary.”
alterity
n : otherness; specifically : the quality or state of being radically alien to the conscious self or a particular cultural orientation “And it is precisely this mix of alterity and swampy familiarity that allows [his] works to elude conceptual summary so successfully.”—DAVID KAUFMANN, SHOFAR MAGAZINE, WINTER 2003
DID YOU KNOW?
If you’re familiar with the verb “alter,” meaning to make or become different, you already have some insight into the origins of “alterity.” Both words are from the Latin alter, meaning “other (of two),” which in turn comes from a prehistoric Indo-European word that is also an ancestor of our “alien.” “Alterity” has been used in English as a fancy word for “otherness” (“the state of being other”) since at least 1642. It remains less common than “otherness” and tends to turn up most often in the contexts of literary theory and cultural studies.
opusculum
n : a minor work (as of literature) Between the publication of his two most famous novels, the author released a slim opusculum documenting his trip to Scotland.
DID YOU KNOW?
“Opusculum” (plural, “opuscula”) comes from Latin, where it served 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. 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.
hirsute
adj : hairy; especially : covered with coarse stiff hairs Mark was so embarrassed by his hirsute legs that he was never seen in pants that didn’t reach his ankles.
DID YOU KNOW?
“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 that are common enough to be entered in Webster’s Third New International Dictionary: “hirsutal” (an adjective meaning “of or relating to hair”), “hirsutism” and “hirsuties” (synonymous nouns naming a medical condition involving excessive hair growth), and “hirsutulous” (an adjective meaning “slightly hairy”).
vorago
n : an engulfing chasm : abyss Treacherous Gollum fell into the Cracks of Doom with the Ring he had snatched from Frodo, and the evil forces of Sauron were consumed in the fiery vorago.
DID YOU KNOW?
“Vorago” seems destined to fall into an abyss of oblivion every 200 years. In the 15th century, we borrowed the Old French version, vorage, to denote either a chasm or a whirlpool. By the 17th century, “vorage” had been dropped in favor of the original Latin vorago (from vorare, meaning “to devour”). In the 19th century, “vorago” was relegated primarily to figurative use. Will it disappear altogether (like Gollum and the Ring at the end of Tolkien’s trilogy) in the 21st century?
sop
n : a conciliatory or propitiatory bribe, gift, or gesture The contractor offered higher-priced bathroom fixtures at no extra cost as a sop to the disgruntled home owner.
DID YOU KNOW?
The etymology of “sop” takes us from milk toast to hellhounds to bribery. The journey starts over 900 years ago, when “sop” referred to bread soaked in water, wine, or another liquid. Sops were considered so appealing that English translations of Virgil’s Aeneid tell of a sibyl using bread soaked in honey to distract and drug Cerberus, the three-headed watchdog of the gates of the underworld, so that Aeneas could get by him safely. By the 1600s, that mythological “sop” had given rise to the expression “give a sop to Cerberus,” meaning “to bribe,” and to the sense of “sop” as a bribe or conciliatory gift.
zaftig
adj : having a full rounded figure : pleasingly plump The Flemish painters were masters of the oil medium, rendering robust burghers, zaftig beauties, and allegorical subjects with subtle interplays of light and color.
DID YOU KNOW?
“Real women have curves,” proclaimed a 2002 movie title. In this view, the ideal woman is robust, pleasingly plump, Rubenesque, full-figured, queen-size, lush, substantial, voluptuous, statuesque. She is, in a word, zaftig. “Zaftig” has been rounding out our language since the 1930s (the same decade that gave us Yiddish-derived “futz,” “hoo-ha,” “nosh,” and “schmaltz,” not to mention “lox”). It comes from the Yiddish zaftik, which means “juicy” or “succulent” and which in turn derives from zaft, meaning “juice” or “sap.”
pomander
n 1: a mixture of aromatic substances enclosed in a perforated bag *2: a clove-studded orange or apple *Megan tucked a homemade clove pomander into the gift basket she had prepared for her host.
DID YOU KNOW?
The Anglo-French pomme de ambre, or “apple of amber,” was modified to “pomander” in Middle English. At that time, pomanders were used to offset foul odors and were also believed to protect against disease. Usually fashioned from fragrant spices placed in small metal containers, they were often worn on chains around the neck or at the waist. Today, we no longer believe pomanders ward off infections, but we still like nicesmelling things, and the word “pomander” survives to name the modern version of this aromatic, decorative object.
quadrennial
adj *1: consisting of or lasting for four years 2: occurring or being done every four years *Every four years, a U.S. president is elected to a quadrennial term of office.
DID YOU KNOW?
The Latin combining form quadri- adds a factor of four to “quadrennial” and to many other English words: “quadriceps” (the thigh muscle, which has four parts), “quadrilateral” (a four-sided polygon), “quadragenarian” (a person in his or her forties), and “quadricentennial” (a 400th anniversary), to name a few. The “-ennial” part of “quadrennial” has the same root as in “biennial” and “centennial”; all trace back to annus, the Latin word for “year.”
irrefragable
adj 1: impossible to refute *2: impossible to break or alter *Meredith didn’t say what kind of birthday cake she wanted, except for the irrefragable condition that it should contain no nuts.
DID YOU KNOW?
Since at least 1533, “irrefragable” has been used as an English adjective modifying things (such as arguments or data) that are impossible to refute. It derives from the Late Latin adjective irrefragabilis (of approximately the same meaning), which is itself derived from the Latin verb refragari, meaning “to oppose” or “resist.” “Irrefragable” rather quickly developed a second sense referring to things (such as rules, laws, and even objects) that cannot be broken or changed. There was once also a third sense that applied to inflexible or obstinate people.
ragtag
adj 1: ragged, unkempt *2: composed of diverse often incongruous elements : motley *We’re just a ragtag collection of bowlers, but our team is headed for the league championship.
DID YOU KNOW?
The expression “tag and rag” was often used pejoratively in the 16th and 17th centuries to refer to members of the lower classes of society. By the 19th century, it had been incorporated into “rag, tag and bobtail.” That phrase could mean either “the lower classes” or “the entire lot of something” (as opposed to just the more desirable parts, e.g., the entire unit of an army, not just its more capable soldiers). Something described as “ragtag and bobtail,” then, was usually common and unspectacular and not considered the cream of the crop. “Ragtag and bobtail” was eventually shortened to “ragtag,” the adjective we know today, which can describe an odd mixture that is often also hastily assembled or second-rate.
synecdoche
n : a figure of speech by which a part is put for the whole or vice versa, the species for the genus or vice versa, or the name of the material for the thing madeThe poetic use of “fifty sails” for “fifty ships” is an example of synecdoche.
DID YOU KNOW?
“Synecdoche,” from Greek syn- (“together”) and ekdochē (“interpretation”), is a good word to know if you’re a budding author. Writers, and especially poets, use synecdoche in several different ways to create vivid imagery. Most frequently, synecdoche involves substituting a part for the whole, but it can also involve putting the whole for the part (“society” for “high society”), the species for the genus (“cutthroat” for “assassin”), the genus for the species (“a creature” for “a man”), or the material for the thing made (“boards” for “stage”). Synecdoche is similar to metonymy: the use of the name of one thing in place of something associated with it (such as “Shakespeare” for “the works of Shakespeare”).
doctrine of signatures
n : an old theory that the outward appearance of a body signals its special properties When the doctrine of signatures was popular, foxglove was used to treat respiratory ailments because its spotted flowers were thought to cure spots on the lungs.
DID YOU KNOW?
The word “signature” (from Latin signare, “to sign or mark”) has been used since the 1600s to refer to a plant feature that suggests its potential medicinal value. For instance, lungwort, whose leaves resemble a lung, was thought to cure lung diseases; bloodroot, with its red sap, was considered effective against blood disorders; and liverwort, which has a three-lobed leaf that resembles the liver, was used to treat—you guessed it—liver diseases. Many examples of the variety of herbal medicine espoused by the doctrine of signatures can be found in Nicholas Culpeper’s pseudoscientific A Physicall Directory, published in 1649.
hypermnesia
n : abnormally vivid or complete memory or recall of the past Julie’s hypermnesia enabled her to perfectly recall any page in her textbook for the test.
DID YOU KNOW?
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 20th century. The word “hypermnesia,” which can also refer to specific instances of heightened memory such as those brought on by trauma or hypnosis, has been with us since at least 1882. It was created in New Latin by combining “hyper-” (meaning “beyond” or “super”) and “-mnesia” (patterned after “amnesia”) and ultimately derives from the Greek word mnasthai, meaning “to remember.”
maffick
v : to celebrate with boisterous rejoicing and hilarious behavior In “Reginald’s Peace Poem,” a sardonic satire about the South African War, H.H. Munro penned, “Mother, may I go and maffick, / Tear around and hinder traffic?”
DID YOU KNOW?
“Maffick” is an alteration of Mafeking Night, the British celebration of the lifting of the siege of a British military outpost during the South African War at the town of Mafikeng (also spelled Mafeking) on May 17, 1900. The South African War was fought between the British and the Afrikaners (Dutch and Huguenot settlers who were originally called Boers) over the right to govern frontier territories. Though the war did not end until 1902, the lifting of the siege of Mafikeng was a significant victory for the British because they held out against a larger Afrikaner force for 217 days until reinforcements could arrive. The rejoicing in British cities on news of the rescue produced “maffick,” a word that became popular especially in journalistic writing.
extemporaneous
adj *1: composed, performed, or uttered on the spur of the moment : impromptu 2: provided, made, or put to use as an expedient *After receiving the award, Jodi made an extemporaneous speech.
DID YOU KNOW?
“Extemporaneous,” which comes from Latin ex tempore (“out of the time”), joined the English language in 1673. About a century later, “impromptu” appeared as a synonym. In general usage, “extemporaneous” and “impromptu” are used interchangeably to describe off-the-cuff remarks or speeches, but this is not the case when they’re used in reference to the art of public speaking. An extemporaneous speech is one that has been thoroughly prepared and planned but not memorized, whereas an impromptu speech is one for which absolutely no preparations have been made.
soporific
adj : causing sleep or drowsiness Succumbing to the soporific effect of a full belly and comfortable surroundings, Charles sank onto the couch by the fireplace and quickly fell asleep.
DID YOU KNOW?
In The Tale of the Flopsy Bunnies by Beatrix Potter, the babies of Benjamin Bunny were very nearly done in by Farmer McGregor because eating too much lettuce had a soporofic effect on them and they fell into a deep sleep. Their near fate can help you recall the history of “soporific.” That term traces to the Latin noun sopor, which meant “deep sleep.” (That root is related to somnus, the Latin word for “sleep” and the name of the Roman god of sleep.) French-speakers used sopor as the basis of soporifique, which was probably the model for today’s word.
tattoo
n *1: a rapid rhythmic rapping 2: a call sounded shortly before taps as notice to go to quarters *I was awakened by a woodpecker beating a tattoo against the drainpipe outside my window.
DID YOU KNOW?
Today’s word has nothing to do with skin markings. That other “tattoo” comes from the Tahitian word tatau. The “tattoo” with sound comes from the Dutch colloquialism tap toe, which can be translated as “turn off the tap,” though it was most often used to mean something like “Shut up! Cease!” The Dutch began using taptoe for a drum beat, and then English-speakers borrowed the term (changing it to “taptoo”). It was used especially in military use to name a drum beat (or possibly a bugle call) that signaled the day’s end. This “taptoo” most likely led to our “taps,” a term for the last bugle call blown at night in the military.
pejorative
adj : having negative connotations; especially : tending to disparage or belittle : depreciatory The team captain was suspended for making pejorative remarks about minorities during a magazine interview.
DID YOU KNOW?
“If you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything at all.” Moms have been giving that advice for years, but unfortunately it often goes unheeded and harsh words become weapons that make bad situations even worse. “Pejorative” is a case in point, descending via the Late Latin pejoratus from the Latin verb pejorare, meaning “to make or become worse.” The word has only been found in English texts since the 1880s. Before then, English-speakers could rely on older synonyms such as “derogatory” and “uncomplimentary” to describe harsh language.
gargantuan
adj : of tremendous size or volume : gigantic, colossal The town’s wealthiest family lived in a gargantuan house at the top of the hill, complete with two swimming pools and a tennis court.
DID YOU KNOW?
Gargantua is the name of a giant king in François Rabelais’ great 16th-century satiric novel Gargantua. Every detail of Gargantua’s life befits a giant. He rides a colossal mare whose tail switches so violently that it fells the entire forest of Orléans. He has an enormous appetite, exemplified in one memorable incident when he inadvertently swallows five pilgrims while eating a salad. The scale of everything connected with Gargantua gave rise to the adjective “gargantuan,” which since Shakespeare’s time has been used to describe anything of tremendous size or volume.
spurious
adj 1: of illegitimate birth *2: not genuine : false *The man at the door said, “I’m the repairman for your TV,” but his claim was clearly spurious; for one thing, I didn’t own a TV!
DID YOU KNOW?
Classical Latin spurius started out meaning “illegitimate.” In the days of ancient Rome, it was sometimes even used as a first name for illegitimate offspring, apparently with no ill effects. There was a certain Spurius Lucretius, for example, who was made temporary magistrate of Rome. In less tolerant times, 18th-century English writer Horace Walpole noted that Henry VII “came of the spurious stock of John of Gaunt.” Today, we still use “spurious” to mean “illegitimate,” but the more common definition is “false,” often suggesting improper origin (“a spurious signature”) but also simply meaning “fake” or “not real.”
volte-face
n : a reversal in policy : about-face The provisional government’s volte-face on holding special elections before year’s end took everybody by surprise.
DID YOU KNOW?
Today, we can choose between “volte-face” and the more English-sounding “about-face,” but that wasn’t always the case. Although foot soldiers have been stepping smartly to the command “About face! Forward march!” for centuries, “about-face” didn’t appear as a figurative noun meaning “reversal of attitude, behavior, or point of view” until the 20th century. On the other hand, we’ve been using the noun “volte-face” with this meaning since at least 1819. “Volte-face” came to us by way of French from Italian voltafaccia (from voltare, Italian for “to turn,” and faccia, meaning “face”).
pogonip
n : a dense winter fog containing frozen particles that is formed in deep mountain valleys of the western U.S. Our guide told us he’d hate to be caught in a pogonip, because the air would be so cold that it might damage his lungs.
DID YOU KNOW?
In the mountains of the American West, the fog condenses into tiny, biting ice particles in extremely cold weather. The English-speaking settlers who encountered this unpleasant and sometimes scary phenomenon in the 1800s needed a word for it, so they took the Paiute word payinappih (“cloud”) and altered it to “pogonip.” “Pogonip” is also the designation of a wilderness area north of Santa Cruz, California, that is often enveloped in fog.
dutch
adv, often capitalized : with each person paying his or her own way Donna agreed to go to the movies with Derek on the condition that they go dutch.
DID YOU KNOW?
During the 17th century, British and Dutch traders became bitter rivals in international commerce. As the competition heated up, so did the invectives. One of the earliest verbal pejorative phrases was “Dutch bargain,” penned in 1654 to describe a bargain made and sealed as if while drinking. “Dutch courage” (courage artificially stimulated especially by drink), “Dutch uncle” (one who admonishes sternly and bluntly), and “in Dutch” (in disfavor or trouble) are further examples. The Dutch were also viewed as greedy. Hence, when you’re invited to a dutch treat, you’re expected to pay your own way. By the 20th century, “dutch” and “dutch treat” were being used as adverbs with the same “pay your own way” connotation.
septentrional
adj : northern My septentrional cousins were impressed by the tall stately palm that grows in our suburban Florida front yard.
DID YOU KNOW?
What does “septentrional” have in common with the month of September and the Big Dipper? The Latin word septem meant “seven,” and September was the seventh month in the earliest Roman calendar. We picked up “septentrional” from septentriones, a Latin word used to refer to the seven principal stars of either of two prominent constellations of the northern sky: Ursa Major (Latin for Greater Bear) or Ursa Minor (Lesser Bear), also known as the Big Dipper and the Little Dipper, respectively. Septentriones in turn derives from septem plus triones, meaning “plowing oxen.”
cornucopia
n 1: a horn-shaped container filled with fruit and grain emblematic of abundance *2: an inexhaustible store : abundance *Wayne’s Web site contained a cornucopia of useful information for collectors.
DID YOU KNOW?
“Cornucopia” comes from the 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 such a 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.
duende
n : the power to attract through personal magnetism and charm Rick possessed not only the talents of a fine quarterback but also the duende to lure fans to the games.
DID YOU KNOW?
The word “duende” comes from Spanish, where it translates literally as “ghost” or “goblin,” and is believed to derive from the phrase dueño de casa, which means “owner of a house.” The term is traditionally used in flamenco music and other art forms to refer to the mystical or powerful force given off by a performer to draw in the audience. The Spanish poet Federico García Lorca wrote in his essay “Teoria y Juego del Duende” (Theory and Play of the Duende) that duende is “a power and not a behavior . . . a struggle and not a concept.” Nowadays the term appears in a broader range of contexts to refer to one’s unspoken charm or allure.
intransigent
adj : characterized by refusal to compromise or to abandon an extreme position or attitude : uncompromising Despite the mediator’s best efforts, the opposing sides in the dispute remained intransigent.
DID YOU KNOW?
English-speakers borrowed “intransigent” in the 19th century from Spanish intransigente (“uncompromising”), which traces ultimately to the Latin verb transigere (“to come to an agreement”). You may wonder if the word “transigent” exists in English, and the answer is “Well, not really.” It has seen occasional use but is not a fixture in our language. We do use another transigire descendant quite often. That word is “transact,” meaning “to conduct (business).”
calumet
n : a highly ornamented ceremonial pipe of the American Indians The Indians sat and smoked from the calumet as they prepared to communicate with the spiritual world.
DID YOU KNOW?
The calumet has long been an important component of the ceremonies of Native American groups, but the first inhabitants of the Americas did not give the venerated pipe (also known today as the “peace pipe”) that name. English-speakers borrowed “calumet” from American French, which had carried it from the dialects of France to North America. Chalumet, the French ancestor of “calumet,” traces to the Latin calamus, meaning “reed.” The French baron Louis-Armand de Lom d’Arce La Hontan, who explored North America in the 17th century, noted that French-speakers had applied “calumet” to the highly ornamented clay pipes of Native Americans by the 1670s; English-speakers followed suit before the turn of that century.
phlegm
n 1: thick mucus secreted in abnormal quantity especially in the nose and throat 2a: cold indifference *b: calm fortitude *A New Englander through and through, Grandmother prepared for the blizzard with characteristic phlegm.
DID YOU KNOW?
The Greek physician Hippocrates theorized that human personalities were controlled by four humors: blood (dominant in cheerful, optimistic types), black bile (which rendered a soul gloomy and melancholy), yellow bile (the source of irritable, angry attitudes), and phlegm (ruling cool, unemotional types). When the Greeks related these humors to their four elements (air, earth, fire, and water), phlegm was linked to water. From an etymological standpoint, however, “phlegm” is more closely linked to fire. It comes from a Greek word meaning “flame” or “inflammation.”
gymkhana
n : a meet featuring sports contests or athletic skills: as a: competitive games on horseback *b: a timed contest for automobiles *The gymkhana was set up with cones laid out in the form of a slalom course to test each driver’s ability to steer around tight corners.
DID YOU KNOW?
Both the word “gymhkhana” and the event it describes originated in 19th-century India. The word is probably an alteration of the Hindi gedkhāna, which describes a ball-playing area similar to a racquetball court. Early gymkhanas were displays of athletic and equestrian skills, but 20th-century varieties usually test car-handling skills. They are often held in parking lots, where contestants race over tight, twisting courses marked with cones or pylons.
doctrinaire
adj : attempting to put into effect an abstract doctrine or theory with little or no regard for practical difficulties : dogmatic His less radical colleagues disdained his doctrinaire acceptance of socialist theory.
DID YOU KNOW?
In postrevolutionary France, members of a group favoring constitutional monarchy called themselves Doctrinaires. Doctrine in French, as in English, is a word for the principles on which a government is based; it is ultimately from Latin doctrina, meaning “teaching” or “instruction.” But both ultraroyalists and revolutionists strongly derided any doctrine of reconciling royalty and representation as utterly impracticable, and they resented the Doctrinaires’ influence over Louis XVIII. So doctrinaire became an adjective in French, and “there adhered to it some indescribable tincture of unpopularity which was totally indelible” (Blanc’s History of Ten Years, 1830–40, tr. by Walter K. Kelly in 1848). Within 20 years, “doctrinaire” had also become the English adjective we have today.
menorah
n : a candelabra with seven or nine branches that is used in Jewish worship At sundown on the first night of Hanukkah, Aaron’s father helped him light the first candle on the menorah.
DID YOU KNOW?
English-speakers originally used the Hebrew borrowing “menorah” for the seven-branched candelabra, which has been used in Jewish worship since ancient times. The nine-branched Hanukkah candelabra is called hanukkiah in Hebrew, but we’ve come to use “menorah” for this, too. The Hanukkah menorah recalls Judas Maccabeus’ expulsion of invading forces from the Temple of Jerusalem. Oil was sought for the temple’s menorah so that the sanctuary could be rededicated, but there was only enough for a single day. Miraculously, that tiny amount burned for eight days, until a new supply could be obtained. The Hanukkah menorah includes a candle for each day the oil burned, plus the shammes, a “servant candle” used to light the others.
luminaria
n : a traditional Mexican Christmas lantern originally consisting of a candle set in sand inside a paper bag The houses on Pedro’s street were decorated with luminarias that created a chain of light as far as the eye could see.
DID YOU KNOW?
“Luminaria” is a fairly recent addition to English; the earliest-known use in our language dates from 1949. We borrowed it from Spanish, but the word has been around with exactly the same spelling since the days of Late Latin. The term ultimately traces to classical Latin and the noun luminare, meaning “lamp” or “heavenly body,” and it is related to other light-bearing words such as “luminary,” “illuminate,” and “phillumenist” (a fancy name for a collector of matchbooks).
Brumalia
n : a pagan festival held at the winter solstice from which some features of the celebration of Christmas seem to have originated Whether or not the date of Christmas was influenced by Brumalia, it’s interesting that both are celebrated on December 25.
DID YOU KNOW?
In the days of ancient Rome, the winter solstice heralded wild celebrations that began with the festival of Saturnalia, held December 17 through the 24; Brumalia was celebrated the next day. All that merrymaking was to celebrate the victory of the invincible sun over the cold and darkness of winter. The name Brumalia recognizes that history; it comes from the Latin brūma, a term that means “winter” and that also gave English “brumal,” a now archaic adjective for things relating to or occurring in the winter.
Kwanzaa
n : an African American festival held in late December The Harris family gathered for the Kwanzaa celebration, which featured a candle-lighting ceremony and a bountiful feast with all the fixings.
DID YOU KNOW?
In 1966, Maulana Karenga, a Black Studies professor at California State University at Long Beach, created a new holiday that he named from the Swahili word kwanza (“first fruits”) and patterned after traditional African harvest festivals. The holiday, which usually takes place from December 26 to January 1, was originally intended as a nonreligious celebration of family and social values. Each day of Kwanzaa is dedicated to one of seven principles: unity, self-determination, collective responsibility, cooperative economics, purpose, creativity, and faith.
stultify
v *1: to cause to appear foolish or absurdly illogical 2: to impair or invalidate 3: to have a dulling effect on *The sitcom’s creators would stultify the main character as a buffoon and then redeem him as a loyal friend.
DID YOU KNOW?
Comedy is sometimes generated by stupid or absurd behavior, but there is nothing funny about the original usage of “stultify.” In the mid-1700s, it was first used in legal contexts with the meaning “to allege or prove (oneself or another) to be of unsound mind so that the performance of some act may be avoided.” The word was then adapted to refer to the process of making someone appear incompetent and over time was generalized to cover any process that could make a person or thing dull or ineffective.
drub
v 1: to beat severely 2: to berate critically *3: to defeat decisively 4: to drum, stamp *After being drubbed by the worst team in the league, the hometown players slunk into the locker room with their heads hanging low.
DID YOU KNOW?
Sportswriters love to use “drub,” but the term wasn’t always a sporting word. When first used in English, “drub” referred to a method of punishment that involved beating the soles of a culprit’s feet with a stick or cudgel. The term was apparently brought to England in the 17th century by travelers who reported observing the punitive practice in Asia. Etymologists are uncertain of its ultimate origin, but some have speculated that “drub” may have evolved from the Arabic word daraba, meaning “to beat.”
festinate
adj : hasty Given the rudeness of our host, no one was surprised by our festinate departure from his home.
DID YOU KNOW?
“Festinate” is one among many in the category of words whose first recorded use is in the works of Shakespeare (“Advise the Duke where you are going, to a most festinate preparation.” —King Lear). Perhaps the Bard knew about festinatus, the Latin predecessor of “festinate,” or was familiar with the Latin proverb festina lente, “to make haste slowly.” Shakespeare also gets credit for the adverb “festinately,” first seen in Love’s Labour’s Lost: “Bring him festinately hither.” But another writer beat him to the verb “festinate” (pronounced 'fes-te-'nāt), meaning “to hasten.”
