Favonian

WORD OF THE DAY

FAVONIAN \ fuh-VOH-nee-un \ adjective


Definition
1: of or relating to the west wind


2: mild


Examples
Our guests relaxed on the patio, watching the sunset and enjoying favonian breezes.


"The singular microclimate of Neuras makes [wine production] possible, as the favonian wind blowing in from the Atlantic chills the area down, while a geological fault spills out five natural springs into the alkaline soil."
— Richard Bangs, The Huffington Post,7 Oct. 2014

Did You Know?
In "Ode to the West Wind," poet Percy Bysshe Shelley called the "wild West Wind" the "breath of Autumn's being." But according to Greco-Roman tradition, the west wind was warm and usually gentle.
Its Latin name, Favonius, is the basis for the English adjective favonian and derives from roots that are akin to the Latin fovēre, meaning "to warm."
Zephyros, a Greek name for the west wind, is the ultimate source of zephyr, meaning "a gentle breeze." In Greco-Roman tradition, it was the north wind, Boreas (aka Aquilo), who was the rude and blustery type.

Wormhole

WORD OF THE DAY

WORMHOLE \ WERM-hohl \ noun


Definition
1 : a hole or passage burrowed by a worm


2 : a hypothetical structure of space-time envisioned as a long thin tunnel connecting points that are separated in space and time


ExamplesSome science fiction writers speculate that wormholes will become the intergalactic highways of the future.

"Sci-fi fans who hope humanity can one day zoom to distant corners of the universe via wormholes, as astronauts do in the recent film 'Interstellar,' shouldn't hold their breath."
— Mike Wall, Space.com, 24 Nov. 2014


Did You Know?
If you associate wormhole with quantum physics and sci-fi, you'll probably be surprised to learn that the word has been around since Shakespeare's day—although, admittedly, he used it more literally than most modern writers. To Shakespeare, a wormhole was simply a hole made by a worm, a more down-to-earth sense which is still used today.
But even the Bard subtly linked wormholes to the passage of time; for example, in The Rape of Lucrece, he notes time's destructive power "to fill with worm-holes stately monuments." To modern astrophysicists, a wormhole isn't a tunnel wrought by a slimy invertebrate but a theoretical tunnel between two black holes or other points in space-time, providing a shortcut between its end points

Petulant

WORD OF THE DAY
PETULANT \  PET-chuh-lunt \ adjective  
 
Definition
1 : insolent or rude in speech or behavior

2 : characterized by temporary or capricious ill humor : peevish

Examples
Uncle Harold is a petulant and fussy man who is always blaming everyone else for his problems.
"… this bunch doesn't care about being reasonable or meeting opposing views halfway. Like petulant toddlers, they want it all right now or they'll throw a tantrum."
— Kevin Foley, The Marietta (Georgia) Daily Journal, 16 Oct. 2015

Did You Know?
Petulant is one of many English words that are related to the Latin verb petere, which means "to go to," "to attack," "to seek," or "to request." Petere is a relative of the Latin adjective petulans ("impudent"), from which petulant was derived. Some other words with connections to petere are compete and appetite. Competere, the Late Latin precursor to compete, is a combination of the prefix com- and the verb petere.
The joining of ad- and petere led to appetere ("to strive after"), and eventually to Latin appetitus, the source of our appetite. Additional descendants of petere are petition, perpetual, and impetus.

Exorbitant

WORD OF THE DAY

EXORBITANT  \ ig-ZOR-buh-tunt  \ adjective 
Definition
1 : not coming within the scope of the law

2 : exceeding the customary or appropriate limits in intensity, quality, amount, or size

Examples
I asked what the rent was for the apartment, and my jaw dropped when they quoted me an exorbitant sum.

"Much of the discussion centered around a lack of financial literacy, which can leave some vulnerable to taking on debt that they can't repay, with exorbitant interest rates or balloon payments."
— Carrie Wells, The Baltimore Sun, 1 Dec. 2015

Did You Know?
The first use of exorbitant in English was "wandering or deviating from the normal or ordinary course." That sense is now archaic, but it provides a hint as to the origins of exorbitant: the word derives from Late Latin exorbitans, the present participle of the verb exorbitare, meaning "to deviate."
Exorbitare in turn was formed by combining the prefix ex-, meaning "out of," with the noun orbita, meaning "track of a wheel" or "rut." (Orbita itself traces back to orbis, the Latin word for "disk" or "hoop.") In the 15th century exorbitant came to refer to something which fell outside of the normal or intended scope of the law. Eventually, it developed an extended sense as a synonym of excessive.

Crèche

WORD OF THE DAY

crèche \ KRESH \ noun

Definition
1 : a representation of the Nativity scene
2 : a nursery or day care center
3 : a group of young animals (such as penguins or bats) gathered in one place for care and protection usually by one or more adults

Examples
A crèche was erected on the lawn in front of the church.

"Goldman has a creche in the basement of the building and Tefridj-Gaillard has used it in the past when other childcare fell through."
— Rosamund Urwin, The Evening Standard, 17 Nov. 2015

Did You Know?
"She wrapped him in swaddling clothes and laid him in a cratch." That may not sound like a familiar translation of Luke 2:7, but back in the 1300s, the substitution of cratch for manger probably wouldn't have raised any eyebrows. Back then spelling was imprecise, and several different words and spellings, including cratch, cracche, crache, and crecche, were used to describe a trough for holding feed for livestock or to identify the manger where Jesus was laid.
By the late 18th century, crèche (which we borrowed from French and now sometimes spell without the accent mark) had displaced those older forms, and the word had lost its former "manger" meaning, coming to refer instead to a representation of the Nativity scene itself.

Aftermath

WORD OF THE DAY

AFTERMATH \ AF-ter-math \ noun

Definition
1 : a second-growth crop
2 : consequence, result
3 : the period immediately following a usually ruinous event

Examples
It was almost noon before I felt ready to face the aftermath of the previous night's festivities, and to begin cleaning up.\

"In the aftermath of World War II, Tupperware parties became a popular compromise between the jobs many [American women] had grown accustomed to while American men were fighting overseas and their re-entrenched domestic obligations as wives and mothers."
— Schuyler Velasco, The Christian Science Monitor, 31 Aug. 2015

Did You Know?
Aftermath dates to the late 1400s and was originally an agricultural term. Its two parts are transparent—but only if you're familiar with an ancient word math that is now used only in British dialectal English and that means "a mowing of a grass or hay crop" and also refers to the crop that is gathered.
The original aftermath came, of course, after the math: it was historically the crop of (usually) grass cut, grazed, or plowed under after the first crop of the season from the same soil. It wasn't until the mid-late 1600s that aftermath developed its other meanings, both of which are now far more common than the first.

Cavil

WORD OF THE DAY

CAVIL \ KAV-il \ verb

Definition
: to raise trivial and frivolous objection

Examples
Amber caviled about going to the flea market when I first brought up the idea, but she seemed to enjoy herself thoroughly once we were there.

"The system prompted some critics to cavil that the Volt was not an electric car, and was simply a plug-in hybrid…."
— Frank A. Aukofer, The Providence Journal, 11 Oct. 2015

Did You Know?

"You must be joking!" That's just one of the things you might be tempted to exclaim if you found yourself quarreling with a caviler—and you'd be right, etymologically speaking at least. Cavil derives from the Latin verb cavillari, meaning "to jest" or "to raise silly objections," which in turn derives from the Latin noun cavilla, meaning "raillery."
In case you're wondering, cavil is not related to the adjective cavalier ("marked by or given to offhand and often disdainful dismissal of important matters"). Cavalier, which is also a noun for a gentleman trained in arms and horsemanship, traces back via Middle French to the Late Latin caballarius, meaning "horseman."

Invidious

WORD OF THE DAY
INVIDIOUS \ in-VID-ee-us \ adjective

Definition
1 : tending to cause discontent, animosity, or envy

2a : unpleasant, objectionable, or obnoxious
2b : of a kind to cause harm or resentment

Examples
"Consider the intimate and curious acquaintance one makes with various kinds of weeds … disturbing their delicate organizations so ruthlessly, and making such invidious distinctions with his hoe, levelling whole ranks of one species, and sedulously cultivating another."
— Henry David Thoreau, Walden, 1854

"Organizations that practice invidious discrimination detract from social justice. Whatever benefits they may have (of tradition, solidarity, community and self-expression) are undercut by the unpleasantness of treating people differently on the basis of arbitrary characteristics."
— Noah Feldman, The Contra Costa (California) Times, 28 Jan. 2015

Did You Know?
Fittingly, invidious is a relative of envy. Both are descendants of invidia, the Latin word for "envy," which in turn comes from invidēre, meaning "to look askance at" or "to envy." (Invidious descends from invidia by way of the Latin adjective invidiosus, meaning "envious," whereas envy comes to English via the Anglo-French noun envie.)
These days, however, invidious is rarely used as a synonym for envious. The preferred uses are primarily pejorative, describing things that are unpleasant (such as "invidious choices" and "invidious tasks") or worthy of scorn ("invidious remarks" or "invidious comparisons").

Hidebound

WORD OF THE DAY

HIDEBOUND \ HYDE-bound \ adjective

Definition
1 : (of a domestic animal) having a dry skin lacking in pliancy and adhering closely to the underlying flesh

2 : having an inflexible or ultraconservative character

Examples
The store failed when its hidebound owners refused to alter their business model to adjust for the changing economy.

"Both sides acknowledge a cultural divide between hidebound Beacon Hill, dominated by lawyers, lobbyists, and professional politicians, and a tech sector increasingly driven by apolitical twentysomethings."
— Michael Levenson, The Boston Globe, 30 Oct. 2015

Did You Know?
Hidebound has its origins in agriculture. The word, which appeared in English as hyde bounde in the 16th century, originally described cattle that, due to illness or poor feeding, had skin that clung to the skeleton and could not be pinched, loosened, or worked with the fingers. Hidebound has also been applied to humans—both literally, to describe people with tight skin, and figuratively.
In its earliest figurative usage, hidebound meant "stingy" or "miserly." That sense has since fallen out of use, but a second figurative usage, describing people who are rigid or unyielding in their actions or beliefs, lives on in our language today.

Perpetuity

WORD OF THE DAY

PERPETUITY \ per-puh-TOO-uh-tee \ noun
 
Definition

1 : eternity

2 : the quality or state of continuing forever

Examples
The terms of the benefactor's will calls for the formation of a trust intended to fund the library for perpetuity.

"Afterwards these animals were reintroduced to the project area, and migratory corridors were created between solar fields to allow antelope and elk to pass unimpeded. As an added measure … 12,000 acres of nearby land were set aside for conservation in perpetuity."
— Philip Warburg, The New York Times, 3 Nov. 2015

Did You Know?
Continual existence—that elusive concept has made perpetuity a favorite term of philosophers and poets for centuries. The word derives ultimately from the Latin adjective perpetuus ("continual" or "uninterrupted"), which is also the source of our perpetual and perpetuate.
It frequently occurs in the phrase "in perpetuity," which essentially means "forever" or "for an indefinitely long period of time." Perpetuity also has some specific uses in law. It can refer to an arrangement in a will rendering land forever inalienable (or at least, for a period longer than is set by rules against such arrangements) or to an annuity that is payable forever.

Unclubbable

WORD OF THE DAY

 

UNCLUBBABLE \ un-KLUB-uh-bul \ adjective

 

Definition

1a: having or showing a disinclination for social activity

1b: unsociable

 

Examples

However fascinating her research is, the professor is decidedly unclubbable and not likely to make a good dinner party guest.

"Journalists are always fun on screen. This is because journalists are such fun in real life. Gossipy and unclubbable, they make the best company."
— Rachel Cooke, The New Statesman, 25 July 2011

 

Did You Know?

The word unclubbable dates to the late 1770s, a time when lexicographer Samuel Johnson was still riding a wave of fame in the wake of the publication of his 1755 A Dictionary of the English Language. Johnson himself likely coined unclubbable.

Earliest evidence of the word in use is from a 1778 entry in author Fanny Burney's diary, in which she quotes Johnson as using the word to describe a friend. Burney herself may have coined the unflattering descriptor's antonym: in a 1781 diary entry, she describes Johnson himself as clubbable—an adjective that has stuck to him ever since.

For Johnson, a person's clubbability was likely determined by how well the person might do in a very particular club: "The Club"—later known as "The Literary Club"—established by Johnson and the artist Joshua Reynolds in 1764.

Deference

WORD OF THE DAY

 

DEFERENCE \ DEF-uh-runss \ noun

 

Definition

1: respect and esteem due a superior or an elder;

2: affected or ingratiating regard for another's wishes

 

Examples

Showing deference to his visiting uncle, Charles insisted on giving up his usual seat at the head of the dinner table so that the older gentleman could take his place.

"At 84, he's … the business's greatest living screenwriter and … a man whom stars treat with a deference he doesn't always reciprocate."
— Boris Kachka, Vulture, 4 Nov. 2015

Did You Know?

The words deference and defer both derive from the Latin deferre, which means "to bring down" or "to carry away." At the same time you might also hear that defer traces to the Latin differre, which means "to postpone" or "to differ." Which root is right? Both.

That's because English has two verbs, or homographs, spelled defer. One means "to submit or delegate to another" (as in "I defer to your greater expertise"). That's the one that is closely related to deference and that comes from deferre. The other means "to put off or delay" (as in "we decided to defer the decision until next month"); that second defer derives from differre.

Natatorial

WORD OF THE DAY

 

NATATORIAL \nay-tuh-TOR-ee-ul \ adjective

 

Definition

1: of or relating to swimming

 

2: adapted to or characterized by swimming

 

Examples

This year's swim team has considerably more natatorial talent than have previous years' teams.

"Natatorial legs are modified for swimming, producing a feathered oar-like form, used by beetles and bugs that spend their lives in water."
— Whitney Crenshaw and Richard Redak, Bugs Rule!, 2013

 

Did You Know?

The Latin verb natare, meaning "to swim," gave English the word natatorial and its variant natatory. It also gave us natant ("swimming or floating in water"); supernatant ("floating on the surface"); natation ("the action or art of swimming"); and last but not least, natatorium ("an indoor swimming pool").

A few common English words are related to this rather obscure bunch, among them nurture, nutrient, and nutrition, but these descend not from natare, but from nutrire, a Latin word (meaning "to nourish") that shares an ancestor with natare.

Fulminate

WORD OF THE DAY

 

FULMINATE \ FULL-muh-nayt \ verb

 

Definition

: to complain loudly or angrily

: to send forth censures or invectives

 

Examples

An avid cyclist, Justine would often fulminate against automobile drivers who ignored bike lanes and otherwise created hazards for those riding on two wheels.

"We say we value memoirs and other nonfiction works precisely because they tell us what really happened. Then, when the amazing true story turns out to be a bit less than absolutely true, some of us fulminate about it for a while, even as countless more continue to pony up for the tale."
— Laura Miller, Salon, 9 June 2015

 

Did You Know?

Lightning strikes more than once in the history of fulminate. That word comes from the Latin fulminare, meaning "to strike," a verb usually used to refer to lightning strikes—not surprising since it sprang from fulmen, Latin for "lightning."

When fulminate was adopted into English in the 15th century, it lost much of its ancestral thunder and was used largely as a technical term for the issuing of formal denunciations by ecclesiastical authorities. But its original lightning spark remains in its suggestion of tirades so vigorous that, as one 18th-century bishop put it, they seem to be delivered "with the air of one who [has] divine Vengeance at his disposal."

Velleity

WORD OF THE DAY

VELLEITY  \ vh-LEE-uh-tee\ noun

Definition
1: the lowest degree of volition

2: a slight wish or tendency : inclination

Examples
Samuel sometimes mentions that he would like to go back to school, but his interest strikes me as more of a velleity than a firm statement of purpose. 

"It should be enough of an advantage for online retailers … that you can order items from them the instant your internet-browsing fingers conceive a velleity to own something; exploiting and maintaining anachronistic tax loopholes is uncalled for."
— The Economist (online), 9 Sept. 2011


Did You Know?
Allow us, if you will, to volunteer our knowledge about velleity. It is a derivative of the New Latin noun velleitas, from the Latin verb velle, meaning "to wish or will." You might also wish to know that velle is the word that gave us voluntary (by way of Anglo-French voluntarie and Latin voluntarius) and volunteer (by way of French voluntaire). While both of those words might imply a wish to do something (specifically, to offer one's help) and the will to act upon it, the less common velleity typically refers to a wish or inclination that is so insignificant that a person feels little or no compulsion to act.

Objet Trouvé

WORD OF THE DAY

 

objet trouvé \ AWB-zhay-troo-VAY \ noun

 

Definition

: a natural or discarded object found by chance and held to have aesthetic value

 

Examples

"Architects, too, have discovered found objects—usually substantial buildings like barns, firehouses, power stations, train depots—but the objet trouvé that Robert A. M. Stern recently transformed into a writers' penthouse and all-purpose retreat from his office below was a humble, metal-clad storage shed…." — Joseph Giovannini, Architectural Digest, July 2007

"The American sculptor Judith Scott literally concealed things: each of her cocoonlike constructions began with an objet trouvé—an umbrella, a skateboard, a tree branch, her own jewelry—around which she wound layers and layers and layers of yarn, twine, and strips of textiles until the item's identity was obscured."
— Andrea K. Scott, The New Yorker, 1 Dec. 2014

 

Did You Know?

Objet trouvé comes from French, where it literally means "found object." The term entered English during the early 20th century, a time when many artists challenged traditional ideas about the nature of true art. Surrealists and other artists, for instance, held that any object could be a work of art if a person recognized its aesthetic merit.

Objet trouvé can refer to naturally formed objects whose beauty is the result of natural forces as well as to man-made artifacts (such as bathtubs, wrecked cars, or scrap metal) that were not originally created as art but are displayed as such.

Adamantine

WORD OF THE DAY

 

ADAMANTINE \ ad-uh-MAN-teen \ adjective

 

Definition

1: made of or having the quality of adamant

 

2a: rigidly firm

2b: unyielding

 

3: resembling the diamond in hardness or luster

 

Examples

The ushers were adamantine in their refusal to let latecomers into the theater.

"Lampard and Pirlo have been adamantine, but even Lampard fell prey to injury this past season."

— Rafael Noboa y Rivera, The Hudson River Blue, 17 June 2015

 

Did You Know?

The Greek and Latin word for the hardest imaginable substance, whether applied to a legendary stone or an actual substance, such as diamond, was adamas. Latin poets used the term figuratively for things lasting, firm, or unbending, and the adjective adamantinus was used in similar contexts.
The English noun adamant (meaning "an unbreakable or extremely hard substance"), as well as the adjective adamant (meaning "inflexible" or "unyielding"), came from adamas. Adamantine, which also has such figurative uses as "rigid," "firm," and "unyielding," came from adamantinus. Adamas is actually the source of diamond as well.
Diamas, the Latin term for diamond, was an alteration of adamas.

Menorah

WORD OF THE DAY

 

MENORAH \ muh-NOR-uh \ noun

 

Definition

: a candelabra with seven or nine lights that is used in Jewish worship

 

Examples

At sundown on the first night of Hanukkah, Joshua's father helped him light the first candle on the menorah.

"Tens of thousands of people come out for the celebration, which includes the lighting of the state's largest menorah (an eighteen-foot steel stunner) and a performance by famed Jewish musician Avraham Fried."
— Brooke Porter Katz, Atlanta Magazine, 1 Nov. 2015

 

Did You Know?

English speakers originally used the Hebrew borrowing menorah for the seven-branched candelabra used in Jewish worship since ancient times. The nine-branched Hanukkah candelabra is called hanukkiah in Hebrew, but English speakers have come to use menorah for this candelabra too.

The Hanukkah menorah recalls the expulsion by Judas Maccabaeus of invading forces from the Temple of Jerusalem. Maccabaeus and his followers sought oil for the temple's menorah so that the sanctuary could be rededicated, but they found only enough oil for a single day. Miraculously, that tiny amount of oil 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" that is used to light the others.

Imprimatur

WORD OF THE DAY

 

IMPRIMATUR \ im-pruh-MAH-toor \ noun

 

Definition

1a : a license to print or publish especially by Roman Catholic episcopal authority

1b : approval of a publication under circumstances of official censorship

 

2a : sanction, approval

2b : imprint

2c : a mark of approval or distinction

 

Examples

"But that's the new Coachella. Being the country's most compelling music festival wasn't enough. It needed a celebrity imprimatur. And with Madonna's much publicized booking last year, the guest list bulged."
— Charles Aaron, Spin, August 2007

"Overseeing the design of the restaurant space is Paul Basile of Basile Studio…. His imprimatur will also be on a major remodel of Craft & Commerce, which is in the midst of a $1.8 million redo…."
— Lori Weisberg, The San Diego Union-Tribune, 27 Oct. 2015

 

Did You Know?

Imprimatur means "let it be printed" in New Latin. It comes from Latin imprimere, meaning to "imprint" or "impress." In the 1600s, the word appeared in the front matter of books, accompanied by the name of an official authorizing the book's printing. It was also in the 1600s that English speakers began using imprimatur in the general sense of "official approval."

The Roman Catholic Church still issues imprimaturs for books concerned with religious matters (to indicate that a work contains nothing offensive to Catholic morals or faith), and there have been other authorities for imprimaturs as well. For example, when Samuel Pepys was president of the Royal Society, he placed his imprimatur on the title page of England's great scientific work, Sir Isaac Newton's Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy, in 1687.

Purloin

WORD OF THE DAY

 

PURLOIN \ per-LOYN \ verb

 

Definition

: to appropriate wrongfully and often by a breach of trust

 

Examples

The columnist resigned from the paper after it was revealed that he had purloined material from other journalists.

"The C.I.A. hacks into computers that Senate intelligence committee staffers are using in the basement of a C.I.A. facility because the spy agency thinks its Congressional overseers have hacked into the C.I.A. network to purloin hidden documents on torture."
— Maureen Dowd, The New York Times, 12 Mar. 2014

 

Did You Know?

Purloin, pilfer, and filch may just seem like fancy words for "steal," but each has a slightly different connotation.

Pilfer implies stealing repeatedly in small amounts, as in this sentence: "It was months before her boss realized she was pilfering office supplies."

Filch adds a suggestion of snatching quickly and surreptitiously, e.g., "He filched an apple from the tray."

Purloin stresses removing or carrying off something for one's own use or purposes, as in "She purloined the manuscript and tried to pass it off as her own work."

Etymology

WORD OF THE DAY

 

ETYMOLOGY \ eh-tuh-MAH-luh-jee \ noun

 

Definition

1: the history of a word or phrase shown by tracing its development and relationships

 

2: a branch of linguistics dealing with etymologies

 

Examples

As the etymology of "December" reports, the month gets its name from the Latin "decem" meaning "ten" —a nod to its former status as the tenth month in the early Roman calendar.

"'Sicario' opens with an etymology of the title. The word, which means hit man, derives from 'Sicarii'; the Sicarii were a band of zealots who attacked Romans in Jerusalem with the intention of expelling them from the Holy Land."
— Sonny Bunch, The Washington Post (online), 24 Sept. 2015

 

Did You Know?

Readers of the Word of the Day are already familiar with etymologies—that is, word histories. The etymology of etymology itself is relatively straightforward. Etymon means "origin of a word" in Latin, and comes from the Greek word etymon, meaning "literal meaning of a word according to its origin." Greek etymon in turn comes from etymos, which means "true." Be careful not to confuse etymology with the similar sounding entomology. Entomon means "insect" in Greek, and entomology is the study of bugs.

Consequential

WORD OF THE DAY

 

CONSEQUENTIAL \ kahn-suh-KWEN-shul \ adjective

 

Definition

1a: of the nature of a secondary result

1b: indirect

 

2: consequent

 

3a: having significant consequences
3b: important

 

4: self-important

 

Examples

Voters handed the mayor a decisive victory in the election, demonstrating that they still trust her to handle the most consequential issues facing the community.

"But while much of the world was looking away, Shinzo Abe, the country's prime minister since 2012, has become one of the most consequentialJapanese politicians of the postwar era."

— Bill Powell, Newsweek, 29 Sept. 2015

 

Did You Know?

Consequential dates from the 17th century and can be traced back to the Latin verb consequi, meaning "to follow along." Consequi, in turn, combines the prefix con-, meaning "through" or "with," and sequi, meaning "to follow." The English words sequel, second, and suitor are among the offspring of sequi.

Henry Fielding's 1728 comedy Love in Several Masques introduced the meaning of "important" to consequential, which had until that point been used primarily in the context of results. Evidence for this usage declined temporarily in the 19th century, causing its acceptability to be questioned by such commentators as H. W. Fowler; it resurfaced in the 20th century, however, and is now considered standard.

Paragon

WORD OF THE DAY

 

PARAGON \ PAIR-uh-gahn \ noun

 

Definition

: a model of excellence or perfection

 

Examples

"What a piece of work is a man! how noble in reason! how infinite in faculties! in form and moving how express and admirable! in action how like an angel! in apprehension how like a god! the beauty of the world, the paragon of animals!" — William Shakespeare, Hamlet, 1600-1601

"Looking at a broad array of American economic indicators, it's hard to see what investors are afraid of. The United States is a paragon of growth … especially the job market."
— Conrad de Aenlle, The New York Times, 9 Oct. 2015

 

Did You Know?

Paragon derives from the Old Italian word paragone, which literally means "touchstone." A touchstone is a black stone that was formerly used to judge the purity of gold or silver. The metal was rubbed on the stone and the color of the streak it left indicated its quality.

In modern English, both touchstone and paragon have come to signify a standard against which something should be judged. Ultimately, paragon comes from the Greek parakonan, meaning "to sharpen," from the prefix para- ("alongside of") and akonē, meaning "whetstone."

Emeritus

WORD OF THE DAY

 

EMERITUS \ ih-MEH-ruh-tus \ adjective

 

Definition

1: holding after retirement an honorary title corresponding to that held last during active service

 

2: retired from an office or position — converted to emeriti after a plural

 

Examples

A letter decrying cuts in staffing at the university was signed by 42 professors emeriti.

"Additional members were named at the annual meeting to the 2015-16 board of directors, which now includes 22 members and four directors emeriti."
— Jenn Smith, The Berkshire Eagle (Pittsfield, Massachusetts), 28 Sept. 2015

 

Did You Know?

The adjective emeritus is unusual in two ways: it's frequently used postpositively (that is, after the noun it modifies), and it has a plural form—emeriti—when it modifies a plural noun in its second sense.

If you've surmised from these qualities that the word is Latin in origin, you are correct. Emeritus, which is the Latin past participle of the verb emereri, meaning "to serve out one's term," was originally used to describe soldiers who had completed their duty. (Emereri is from the prefix e-, meaning "out," and merēre, meaning "to earn, deserve, or serve"—also the source of our English word merit.)

By the beginning of the early 18th century, English speakers were using emeritus as an adjective to refer to professors who had retired from office. The word eventually became applied to other professions where a retired member may continue to hold a title in an honorary capacity

Colligate

WORD OF THE DAY

 

COLLIGATE \ KAH-luh-gayt \ verb

 

Definition

1: to bind, unite, or group together

 

2: to subsume (isolated facts) under a general concept

 

3: to be or become a member of a group or unit

 

Examples

"For instance, many words colligate with the word 'the,' which is a grammatical marker of definiteness rather than a word that carries significant semantic content."
— Tony McEnery and Andrew Hardie, Corpus Linguistics: Method, Theory and Practice, 2012

"Research that examines the combined effect of lifestyle factors on mortality is plentiful, and data have been colligated in a recent meta-analysis."
— Valentina A. Andreeva et al., The American Journal of Public Health, November 2014

 

Did You Know?

Colligate (not to be confused with collocate or collegiate) is a technical term that descends from Latin colligare, itself from com- ("with") plus ligare ("to tie"). Which of the following words is NOT tied to ligare?

Ligature, ligament, lien, rely, ally, collogue, oblige, furl, league. Ligature, ligament, lien, rely, ally, oblige, furl, and league (in the sense of "an association of persons, groups, or teams") can all be traced back along varying paths to ligare. That leaves only collogue (meaning "to confer")—whose origin is unknown. (Collocate and collegiate are also unrelated via ligare.)

Minatory

WORD OF THE DAY

 

MINATORY \ MIN-uh-tor-ee \ adjective

 

Definition

: having a menacing quality

 

Examples

In the moonlight, the twisted winter trees took on a particularly baleful and minatory appearance.

"No one likes to hear or heed prophets of doom, but history is replete with them.… The minatory mutterings of the Delphic Oracle were often unheeded by the Greeks."
— Brian Roche, Redlands (California) Daily Facts, 28 Sept. 2015

 

Did You Know?

Knowing that minatory means "threatening," can you take a guess at a related word? If you're familiar with mythology, perhaps you guessed Minotaur, the name of the bull-headed, people-eating monster of Crete. Minotaur is a good guess, but as terrifying as the monster sounds, its name isn't related to today's word. The relative we're searching for is actually menace.

Minatory and menace both come from derivatives of the Latin verb minari, which means "to threaten." Minatory was borrowed directly from Late Latin minatorius. Menace came to English via Anglo-French manace, menace, which came from Latin minac-, minax, meaning "threatening."

Henotheism

WORD OF THE DAY

 

HENOTHEISM \ HEN-uh-thee-iz-um \ noun

 

Definition

: the worship of one god without denying the existence of other gods

 

Examples

"For Assyrian kings, the god Ashur … was proclaimed to be the true king, and the human king was the god's regent. In other words, in the ancient world, henotheism was a convenient method for imposing a king's rule over subject peoples: one all-powerful god means one all-powerful king as well."
— A. C. Black, Canaan and Israel in Antiquity: An Introduction, 2001

"Wishing to find the roots of Jewish monotheism in the cult of Aten, Freud worked freely with ancient Egyptian henotheism: that is, the concept of the sun as one supreme divinity among many."
— David Meghnagi, The International Journal of Psychoanalysis, 2014

 

Did You Know?

Henotheism comes to us from the German word Henotheismus, which in turn is derived from Greek hen- ("one") and theos ("god"). Someone who engages in henotheism worships one god but does not deny that there are others.

Max Müller, a respected 19th-century scholar, is credited with promoting the word henotheism as a counterpart to polytheism ("belief in or worship of more than one god") and monotheism ("the doctrine or belief that there is but one God").

Müller also used the related word kathenotheism, from Greek kath' hena ("one at a time"), for the worship of several gods successively.

Foreshorten

WORD OF THE DAY

 

FORESHORTEN \ for-SHORT-un \ verb

 

Definition

1: to shorten by proportionately contracting in the direction of depth so that an illusion of projection or extension in space is obtained

 

2a: to make more compact

2b: abridge, shorten

 

Examples

"The past is a giant foreshortened with his feet towards us; and sometimes the feet are of clay."
— G. K. Chesterton, A Short History of England, 1917

"A low vantage point provides the opportunity to dramatically foreshorten the dimensions of the building, drawing the eye upward to the dome."
— Mary McNaughton, The Little Book of Drawing, 2007

 

Did You Know?

Foreshorten first appeared in a 1606 treatise on art by the British writer and artist Henry Peacham: "If I should paint ... an horse with his brest and head looking full in my face, I must of necessity foreshorten him behinde."

Peacham's foreshorten comes from fore- (meaning "earlier" or "beforehand") plus shorten. The addition of fore- to verbs was a routine practice in Peacham's day, creating such words as fore-conclude, fore-consider, fore-instruct, and fore-repent.

Foreshorten, along with words like foresee and foretell, is one of the few fore- combinations to still survive.

Fulsome

WORD OF THE DAY

 

FULSOME \ FULL-sum \ adjective

 

Definition

1a : characterized by abundance

1c: copious

1c : generous in amount, extent, or spirit

 

2: aesthetically, morally, or generally offensive

 

3a: exceeding the bounds of good taste

3b: overdone

 

4a: excessively complimentary or flattering

4b: effusive

 

Examples

"The magnolia was in fulsome bloom, great waxy cups in dark green saucers pressing against the windows."
— Caroline Graham, The Killings at Badger's Drift, 1987

"Consider, in particular, the case of Britain. In 2010, when the new government of Prime Minister David Cameron turned to austerity policies, it received fulsome praise from many people on this side of the Atlantic."
— Paul Krugman, The New York Times, 24 Jan. 2013

 

Did You Know?

One has only to survey the meanings of fulsome—listed above in the order in which they developed—to understand why there is a lot of confusion about exactly what fulsome means. Some critics disapprove of using it in its original "copious" sense because they feel that sense is not negative enough; they say that fulsome should always be at least mildly deprecatory.

It's true that today fulsome is often used pejoratively to describe overly effusive language, but modern English writers still sometimes use it simply to mean "abundant," or occasionally even in contexts where it is complimentary. Some writers go to the more negative extreme, using it for things that are offensive to normal tastes or sensibilities. To avoid misinterpretation, either be sure that the context in which you use the word makes the intended meaning clear or choose a different word.

Vicinity

WORD OF THE DAY

 

VICINITY \ vuh-SIN-uh-tee \ noun

 

Definition

1: the quality or state of being near : proximity

 

2a: a surrounding area or district
2b: neighborhood

 

3: an approximate amount, extent, or degree

 

Examples

There are several wonderful little stores in the vicinity of our new house.

"He showed me how to draw the bowstring and where to keep my sights. Within a few tries, I was shooting in the vicinity of the target."
— Lisa Lutz, Self, June 2015

 

Did You Know?

Vicinity has its origins in the idea of neighborliness—it was borrowed into English in the 16th century from Middle French vicinité, which in turn derives from the Latin adjective vicinus, meaning "neighboring."

Vicinus itself can be traced back to the noun vicus, meaning "row of houses" or "village," and ultimately all the way back to the same ancient word that gave Gothic, Old Church Slavic, and Greek words for "house."

Other descendants of vicinus in English include vicinal ("local" or "of, relating to, or substituted in adjacent sites in a molecule") and vicinage, a synonym of vicinity in the sense of "a neighboring or surrounding district."

Ruly

WORD OF THE DAY

RULY \ ROO-lee \ adjective

 

Definition

: obedient, orderly

 

Examples

As far as groups of young children go, this one was unusually ruly: the youngsters were all fully engaged in building with a large set of colored blocks. "My hair is ruly, in fact, and I get it cut at least once a month."
— Mike Pound, The Joplin (Missouri) Globe, 22 June 2013

Did You Know?

You're probably familiar with unruly, meaning "not readily controlled or disciplined." It's a useful word, along with such synonyms as defiant and willful. It has plenty of antonyms too, among them the wholly logical ruly.

Haven't heard of ruly till now? We're not surprised. Ruly and unruly are of the same 15th-century vintage, but the former never caught on the way unruly did. The more common unruly is also the older of the pair: ruly was formed by a process called "back-formation" from unruly.

Ultimately, both words come from reuly, a Middle English word meaning "disciplined." Reuly in turn comes from Middle English reule, a predecessor of rule.

Onomastics

WORD OF THE DAY

 

ONOMASTICS \ ah-nuh-MAS-tiks \ noun

 

Definition

1a : the science or study of the origins and forms of words especially as used in a specialized field

1b : the science or study of the origin and forms of proper names of persons or places

 

2: the system underlying the formation and use of words especially for proper names or of words used in a specialized field

Examples

As a student of onomastics, Gloria liked to keep track of the most popular baby names across generations.

"Leaving that aside, the name Fatima is also used by Catholics, who take it from the town where the Virgin Mary was reported to have appeared in 1917 (itself, in one of those byways of onomastics, named after a princess who bore the name of Mohammed's daughter)."
— Dot Wordsworth, The Spectator (London), 9 May 2015

 

Did You Know?

The original word for the science of naming was onomatology, which was adopted from French in the mid-19th century. About a century later, however, people began referring to the science as onomastics, a term based on the Greek verb onomazein ("to name").

Like many sciences, onomastics is itself composed of special divisions. An onomastician might, for example, study personal names or place names, names of a specific region or historical period, or even the character names of a particular author, like Charles Dickens.

Inviolable

WORD OF THE DAY

 

INVIOLABLE \ in-VYE-uh-luh-bul \ adjective

 

Definition

1: secure from violation or profanation

 

2a: secure from assault or trespass
2b: unassailable

 

Examples

The senator agreed to an interview on the basis of a set of clear and inviolable rules about what she would and would not answer.

"Perhaps M Train represents the attempt by someone whose career is as public as can be imagined to stake out a zone of inviolable privacy, albeit through the public act of writing a book meant for publication."
— Geoffrey O’Brien, The New York Review of Books, 22 Oct. 2015

 

Did You Know?

Inviolable is a venerable word that has been with us since the 15th century. Its opposite, violable ("capable of being or likely to be violated") appeared a century later. The English playwright Shackerley Marmion made good use of violable in A Fine Companion in 1633, writing, "Alas, my heart is Tender and violable with the least weapon Sorrow can dart at me."

But English speakers have never warmed up to that word the way we have to inviolable, and it continues to be used much less frequently. Both terms descend from Latin violare, which both shares the meaning and is an ancestor of the English word violate.

Bipartisan

WORD OF THE DAY

 

BIPARTISAN \ bye-PAR-ti-zun \ adjective

 

Definition

1a: of, relating to, or involving members of two parties

1b: specifically : marked by or involving cooperation, agreement, and compromise between two major political parties

 

Examples

The bill has bipartisan support in the Senate, since it stands to benefit both Democrats and Republicans equally.

"The stated aim of No Labels, the group giving the dinner ahead of its Problem Solver Convention on Monday, was to encourage bipartisan leadership."
— Ruth La Ferla, The New York Times, 12 Oct. 2015

Did You Know?

Bipartisan is a two-part word. The first element is the prefix bi-, which means "two"; the second is partisan, a word that traces through Middle French and north Italian dialect to the Latin part- or pars, meaning "part."

Partisan itself has a long history as a word in English. It has been used as a noun in reference to a firm adherent to a party, faction, or cause (especially one exhibiting blind, prejudiced, and unreasoning allegiance), since the 16th century.

The related adjective (meaning "of, relating to, or characteristic of a partisan") appeared in the 19th century, as did, after a space of some 50 years, the adjective bipartisan.

Ebullient

WORD OF THE DAY

 

EBULLIENT \ ih-BULL-yunt \ adjective

 

Definition

1: boiling, agitated

 

2a: having or showing liveliness and enthusiasm

2b: exuberant

 

Examples

"Keegan, effortlessly ebullient even on his worst days, is probably the easiest person in the history of civilization to have a conversation with…."
— Jay Martel, The New Yorker (online), 9 Sept. 2015

"You have to feel ebullient in what you're wearing.… Especially in the spring, you want to enjoy yourself."
— Alexa Adams, quoted in Reuters UK, 16 Sept. 2015

 

Did You Know?

Someone who is ebullient is bubbling over with enthusiasm, so it shouldn't be much of a surprise that the adjective ebullient derives from the Latin verb ebullire, which means "to bubble out." (The stem bullire is an ancestor of our word boil and derives from bulla, the Latin word for "bubble.")

In its earliest known uses in English in the late 1500s, ebullient was used in the sense of "boiling" or "bubbling" that might have described a pot simmering on the stove. Only later did the word's meaning broaden to encompass emotional agitation (particularly of the exuberant kind) in addition to the tempestuous roiling of a boiling liquid.