Shot-clog

WORD OF THE DAY

shot-clog / noun / SHAHT-klahg

Definition

1: : a bore tolerated only because he or she pays the shot

Examples

I'd planned to reimburse Jerry for the meal via PayPal, but after sitting through a lengthy evening of him holding forth on myriad topics, I decided it would be an unfair challenge to his reputation as a shot-clog.

"Alas! I behold thee with pity, not with anger: thou common shot-clog, gull of all companies; methinks I see thee walking in Moorfields without a cloak, with half a hat … borrowing and begging threepence." 

— John Marston, Ben Jonson, and George Chapman, Eastward Ho!, 1605

Did You Know?

The shot in shot-clog refers to a charge to be paid. It's a cousin to, and synonymous with, Scot a word likely only familiar to modern speakers in the term scot-free, meaning "completely free from obligation, harm, or penalty." 

The origin of the  clog part of shot-clog is less clear. Perhaps it's meant to draw a parallel between a substance that impedes a pipe's flow and a person who impedes a good time; or perhaps companions' tabs accumulate before the shot-clog as so much dross in a clogged pipe, while the shot-clog yammers on unawares. 

The 17th-century playwright Ben Johnson was particularly fond of shot-clog, and while the word is no longer in regular use, it might work for you as a suitable old-time insult for that person in your party who is fine to have around so long as they pick up the tab.

Disbursement

WORD OF THE DAY

disbursement / noun / diss-BERSS-munt

Definition

1: the act of paying out money especially from a fund 

2: the act of disbursing

2b: funds paid out

Examples

Stephanie receives a monthly disbursement from her parents' trust fund.

"The bank expanded the reach of its digital disbursements product by teaming up with PayPal." 

— The Banker, 1 Oct. 2018

Did You Know?

Disbursement was minted in English in the late 16th century by melding the noun suffix -meant with the verb disburse.

Disburse is a borrowing of the Middle French desborser, which traces back to the Old French desborser, a combination of the negating prefix des- (equivalent to the English dis-) and borse, which, like its English cognate purse, ultimately traces back to the Medieval Latin bursa, meaning "money bag" and, in earlier Latin usage “oxhide” 

During the 16th and 17th centuries, deburse, depurse, and dispurse were deposited in the English language bank as synonyms of disburse. 

Deburse and depurse were also used respectively to form debursement and depursement—but these synonyms of disburse and disbursement all quickly declined in value and were never redeemed.

Bread

WORD OF THE DAY

bread / noun / BRED

Definition

1: a usually baked and leavened food made of a mixture whose basic constituent is flour or meal

2a: food, sustenance

3a: livelihood 

3b (Slang): money

Examples

His brother was running low on bread, so Michael lent him some money through PayPal to tide him over.

"Once my mom started making some bread, we bought our first house, a midcentury modern, glass-sided, beautiful ranch house." 

— Lenny Kravitz, quoted on Hollywoodreporter.com, 2 Feb. 2018

Did You Know?

Bread is a food consisting of flour or meal that is moistened, kneaded into dough, and often fermented using yeast, and it has been a major sustenance since prehistoric times. 

With the right ingredients, it can be a source of complex carbohydrates and B vitamins (add whole wheat, and you increase its nutritional value). 

Through synecdoche, its name rose to refer to any source of food or sustenance. 

Reference to a path to sustenance followed in the 18th century. "I was under no necessity of seeking my bread," recounts Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe. Dough had already been used to refer to money in 19th-century slang and, in a natural extension, bread was served with the same meaning in the jazz and beat slang of the mid-20th century ("Dean just raced in society, eager for bread and love," writes beatnik Jack Kerouac).

Lacuna

WORD OF THE DAY

lacuna / noun / luh-KOO-nuh

Definition

1a: a blank space or a missing part 

1b: gap

1c: deficiency

2: a small cavity, pit, or discontinuity in an anatomical structure

Examples

The osteocyte is a cell that is isolated in a lacuna of bone.

"During her investigation, Charlie disguises herself as a man, but it's not entirely clear why the private detective does this—the only lacuna in an otherwise well-handled plot." 

— Eve Ottenberg, The Washington (D.C.) City Paper, 8 Apr. 2019

Did You Know?

Exploring the etymology of lacuna involves taking a plunge into the pit—or maybe a leap into the lacus(that's the Latin word for "lake"). 

Latin speakers modified lacus into lacuna and used it to mean "pit," "cleft," or "pool." English speakers borrowed the term in the 17th century. It is usually pluralized as lacunae; however, lacunas is an accepted variant plural. 

Another English word that traces its origin to lacuna is lagoon, which came to us by way of Italian and French.

Commemorate

WORD OF THE DAY

commemorate / verb / kuh-MEM-uh-rayt

Definition

1a: to call to remembrance

2a: to mark by some ceremony or observation 

2b: observe

3: to serve as a memorial of

Examples

A plaque commemorates the battle that took place on this spot 200 years ago.

"The conference will feature presentations by educators and World War II history experts, along with discussions with veterans of the war. It will culminate with a remembrance ceremony at the World War II Memorial, where participants will commemorate veterans of that war." 

— Abigail Austin, The Morning Sentinel (Waterville, Maine), 15 Apr. 2019

Did You Know?

When you remember something, you are mindful of it. It's appropriate, therefore, that commemorate and other related memory-associated words (including memorable, memorial, remember, and memory itself) come from the Latin root memor, meaning "mindful." 

Some distant older relatives are Old English gemimor("well-known"), Greek mermēra("care"), and Sanskrit smarati("he remembers"). 

English speakers have been marking the memory of important events with commemorate since the late 16th century.

Incipient

WORD OF THE DAY

incipient / adjective / in-SIP-ee-unt

Definition
: beginning to come into being or to become apparent

Examples
"I read the motive as being dictated by the necessity of stifling an incipient scandal in order to protect the magic of the marketplace."
— James Baldwin, The Evidence of Things Not Seen, 1985

"As investment in the industry grows, partnerships and acquisitions are gaining speed, reports CB Insights. Over the past few years, Uber has partnered with five flying-car startups for its incipient flying-taxi service…."
— Michael J. Coren, Quartz, 13 Oct. 2018

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

Scavenger

WORD OF THE DAY

scavenger / noun / SKAV-un-jer

Definition
1 (chiefly British): a person employed to remove dirt and refuse from streets
2a: one that scavenges: such as a garbage collector: a junk collector
2b: chemically active substance acting to make innocuous or remove an undesirable substance
3: an organism that typically feeds on refuse or carrion

Examples
My uncle, a habitual scavenger and clever handyman, found a broken exercise machine left on the curb and fixed it so that it works again.

"The 34-year-old scavenger has had to work longer and harder over the past year, underlining how a drastic decline in scrap metal and commodity prices has hurt even the poor who collect discarded metal to sell to scrap yards."
— Brendan O'Brien, Reuters, 4 July 2016

Did You Know?
You might guess that scavenger is a derivative of scavenge, but the reverse is actually true; scavenger is the older word, first appearing in English in the early 16th century, and the back-formation scavenge came into English in the mid-17th century.
Scavenger is an alteration of the earlier scavager, itself from Anglo-French scawageour, meaning "collector of scavage."
In medieval times, scavage was a tax levied by towns and cities on goods put up for sale by nonresidents in order to provide resident merchants with a competitive advantage.
The officers in charge of collecting this tax were later made responsible for keeping streets clean, and that's how scavenger came to refer to a public sanitation employee in Great Britain before acquiring its current sense referring to a person who salvages discarded items.

Hypermnesia

WORD OF THE DAY

hypermnesia / noun / hye-perm-NEE-zhee-uh

Definition
: abnormally vivid or complete memory or recall of the past

Examples
"Imagine being able to recall anything you've ever dreamt, tasted or read. That's the reality for a woman with a rare condition which means she can remember virtually every single detail of her life—even being able to recite all the Harry Potter books word-for-word. Rebecca Sharrock is one of just 80 people worldwide who have been identified as having … hypermnesia."
— Erin Cardiff, The Mirror, 6 Oct. 2015

"'Qui perd gagne!'…, which is translated as 'Loser Take All,' maintains its interest all the way through and awards the viewer with a nice little twist at the end.… Loriot has hypermnesia…. He remembers with total recall absolutely everything he has ever seen or heard, which could drive him crazy without the medication he must take."
— Daniel Neman, The Richmond (Virginia) Times-Dispatch, 2 Apr. 2005

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

Pungle

WORD OF THE DAY

pungle / verb / PUNG-gul

Definition

1: to make a payment or contribution of (money) — usually used with up

2: pay, contribute — usually used with up

Examples

Residents have been pungling up to send their little league team to the national championship; donations can be made via credit card or PayPal on the town’s Sports and Recreation website.

"In December 1849, Coffin formed Coffin & Co. and contracted with a New York builder for a … side-wheel steamer to ply the waters between Portland and San Francisco. When he and his partners failed to pungle up the final payment, however, the vessel was sold." 

— John Terry, The Sunday Oregonian (Portland, Oregon), 19 Aug. 2007

Did You Know?

Pungle is from the Spanish word póngale, meaning "put it down," which itself is from the verb poner, meaning "to put" or "to place," and, more specifically, "to wager" or "to bet." 

The earliest uses of pungle are from the mid-1800s and are in reference to anteing up in games of chance. 

It did not take long for the word to be used in other contexts. We find it, for example, in Mark Twain's Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884) when Huck's father says: "I'll make [Judge Thatcher] pungle, too, or I'll know the reason why." Nowadays, pungle is mainly used in the western part of the United States.

Remittance

WORD OF THE DA Y

remittance / noun / rih-MIT-unss

Definition
1a: a sum of money remitted
1b: an instrument by which money is remitted
2: transmittal of money (as to a distant place)

Examples
"PayPal has everything it needs to send money to friends or family or to pay bills, even across borders. Its acquisition of Xoom in 2015 gave it a strong position in digital remittance."
— Adam Levy, The Motley Fool, 14 Dec. 2018

"Kit … knew that his old home was a very poor place…, and often indited square-folded letters to his mother, enclosing a shilling or eighteenpence or such other small remittance, which Mr Abel's liberality enabled him to make."
— Charles Dickens, The Old Curiosity Shop, 1841

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

Palimpsest

WORD OF THE DAY

palimpsest / noun / PAL-imp-sest

Definition
1: writing material (such as a parchment or tablet) used one or more times after earlier writing has been erased
2: something having usually diverse layers or aspects apparent beneath the surface

Examples
"Among those handwritten manuscripts are 130 that have additional secrets: They are palimpsests, documents in which the original text was erased and written over, the parchment considered more valuable than the text."
— Sarah Laskow, Atlas Obscura, 29 Aug. 2017

"Large and medium-sized canvases in varying stages of completion covered most of the wall space in the studio … and the floor was a palimpsest of rags, used paper palettes, brushes, metal tubs filled with defunct tubes of Old Holland oil paint, colored pencils and broken charcoal sticks, … and other debris."
— Calvin Tomkins and Dodie Kazanjian, The New Yorker, 10 Apr. 2017

Did You Know?
Long ago, writing surfaces were so rare that they were often used more than once. Palimpsest originally described an early form of recycling in which an old document was erased to make room for a new one when parchment ran short.
The word is from the Greek palimpsēstos, meaning "scraped again." Fortunately for modern scholars, the erasing process wasn't completely effective, so the original could often be distinguished under the newer writing.
De republica, by Roman statesman and orator Cicero, is one of many documents thus recovered from a palimpsest. Nowadays, the word palimpsest can refer not only to such a document but to anything that has multiple layers.

Countermand

WORD OF THE DAY

countermand / verb / KOUNT-er-mand

Definition

1 : to revoke (a command) by a contrary order

2 : to recall or order back by a superseding contrary order

Examples

"Although the Special Counsel regulations may not permit the Acting Attorney General to countermand certain decisions made by the Special Counsel, the Special Counsel remains subject to the Acting Attorney General's plenary supervision." 

— Jennifer Rubin, The Washington Post Blogs, 13 Aug. 2018

"The idea … was that there should be an extra layer of distance between the people and the choice of president—and that this layer should consist of a group of citizens (electors) who freely deliberate about the choice … with the outcome of those deliberations treated as legitimate by the people even when it countermands the result of the popular vote." 

— Damon Linker, The Week, 19 Sept. 2018

Did You Know?

In the military, one's mandate is to follow the commands (and sometimes the countermands) of the officers. Doing their bidding is not particularly commendable—it's simply mandatory. 

The Latin verb mandare, meaning "to entrust" or "to order," is the authority behind countermand. 

It's also behind the words mandate, command, demand, commend (which can mean "to entrust" as well as "to praise"), and mandatory. 

Countermand came to English via Anglo French, where the prefix cuntre- ("against") was combined with the verb mander ("to command"). It has been a part of our language since the 1400s.

Glitch

WORD OF THE DAY

glitch / noun / GLITCH

Definition
1a: a usually minor malfunction
1b: an unexpected defect, fault, flaw, or imperfection
1c: a minor problem that causes a temporary setback
1d: snag
2: a false or spurious electronic signal

Examples
The festival had an excellent lineup of performers, and the few glitches with the sound system did not seriously detract from the overall quality of the entertainment.

"A computer glitch delayed the start of the Saturday press run; by the time it was fixed, the judgment call was made to postpone distribution until Sunday, rather than send carriers out after dark on Saturday."
— Jeff Pieters, The Post-Bulletin (Rochester, Minnesota), 9 Mar. 2019

Did You Know?
There's a glitch in the etymology of glitch—the origins of the word are not known for sure, though it may derive from the Yiddish glitsh, meaning "slippery place."
Glitch started showing up in print in English in the mid-20th century in reference to a brief unexpected surge of electrical current.
The term was new enough in 1962 that the astronaut John Glenn, writing in the book Into Orbit, felt the need to explain the term to his readers: "Literally, a glitch is a spike or change in voltage in an electrical circuit which takes place when the circuit suddenly has a new load put on it."
Today, you don't have to be an astronaut to be familiar with the word glitch, which can be used of any minor malfunction or snag.

Borne

WORD OF THE DAY

borne / adjective / BORN

Definition
: transported or transmitted by — used in combination

Examples
"By 2050, half the world's population could be at risk of mosquito-borne diseases like dengue fever or the Zika virus, new research suggests."
— Chelsea Harvey, Scientific American, 7 Mar. 2019

"Tacoma had a population of 36,006 by 1890, a boom of 3,179.2 percent in just 10 years. But not to be outdone, Seattle had formed its own rail service, the Seattle & Walla Walla Railroad, to feed off the profitable railroad-borne commerce."
— Steve Dunkelberger, SouthSoundTalk.com (Pierce County, Washington), 28 Aug. 2018

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

Regale

WORD OF THE DAY

regale / verb / rih-GAIL

Definition
1a: to entertain sumptuously
1b: to feast with delicacies
2: to give pleasure or amusement to
3a: to feast oneself
3b: feed

Examples
"Mickelson regaled the 1,000 or so spectators at Monday's trophy ceremony on the 18th green by sharing how his late grandfather, Al Santos, was an original caddie here when Pebble Beach opened 100 years ago."
— Cam Inman, The East Bay Times (Walnut Creek, California), 11 Feb. 2019

"The process of digestion, as I have been informed by anatomical friends, is one of the most wonderful works of nature. I do not know how it may be with others, but it is a great satisfaction to me to know, when regaling on my humble fare, that I am putting in motion the most beautiful machinery with which we have any acquaintance."
— Charles Dickens, Martin Chuzzlewit, 1844

Did You Know?
Regale has been an English verb since the early half of the 1600s; it was adapted from French régaler, which has the same meaning as regale. The French verb traces back to Middle French galer, which means "to have a good time," and, ultimately, to gale, meaning "pleasure." (Gala, meaning "a festive celebration," is from the same source.)
Regale also has a history as a noun meaning "a sumptuous feast." Early use of the noun appears in a 1670 notice: "My Lord Duke will not be able to get away yet…, all the regales that are intended for him not being yet at an end." (The man referred to is the Duke of Buccleuch, whose regales ended once and for all 15 years later when he was beheaded.)

Footle

WORD OF THE DAY

footle / verb / FOO-tul

Definition
1: to talk or act foolishly
2a: to waste time
2b: trifle, fool

Examples
"A very British invention…, the steam locomotive, derived as it was from [George] Stephenson's nippy Rocket machine on parallel tracks, and the experiments of a young boy called James Watt, who footled about with a spoon in the steam from his aunt's kettle."
— John Lewis-Stempel, The Express Online (U.K.), 5 Aug. 2018

"I left the convent with an ability to curtsey, two rubbish A-levels and a large repertoire of slightly scandalous songs. I footled around for a year, wasted three years at university, footled around a bit more and then finally did what I'd wanted to do all along—go to drama school…."
— Dillie Keane, The Guardian (London), 19 Aug. 2015

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

Stratagem

WORD OF THE DA Y

stratagem / noun / STRAT-uh-jum

Definition
1a: an artifice or trick in war for deceiving and outwitting the enemy
1b: a cleverly contrived trick or scheme for gaining an end
2: skill in ruses or trickery

Examples
As a stratagem to get the kids to do their chores, Melissa persuaded them to have a race to see which child could finish first.

"Perpetrators always have at their disposal a set of self-exculpatory stratagems that they can use to reframe their actions as provoked, justified, involuntary, or inconsequential."
— Steven Pinker, The Better Angels of Our Nature, 2011

Did You Know?
A stratagem is any clever scheme—sometimes one that's part of an overall strategy (i.e., a carefully worked out plan of action).
The word stratagem entered English in the 15th century and was originally used in reference to some artifice, such as a military plan or maneuver, which was designed to deceive or outwit the enemy. This military sense can be traced back to the word's Greek ancestor stratēgēma, which is itself based on stratēgein, meaning "to act as a general."
Stratēgein, in turn, comes from stratēgos (meaning "general"), which comes from stratos ("camp" or "army") and agein ("to lead").
Stratēgos is an ancestor of strategy as well.

Muse

WORD OF THE DAY

muse / verb / MYOOZ

Definition
1a: to become absorbed in thought
1b: to think about something carefully and thoroughly
2 (archaic): wonder, marvel
3 : to think or say (something) in a thoughtful way

Examples
"On Twitter and Instagram, he's been acting like a moody teenager, posting photos of himself staring at scenic natural landscapes and musing about the nature of time itself."
— Jacob Shamsian, Insider, 25 Mar. 2019

"'Television brings people together, but television can also tear us apart,' [Jimmy] Kimmel mused."
— Patrick Keefe, The New Yorker, 7 Jan. 2019

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

Links

WORD OF THE DAY

links (plural) / noun / LINKS

Definition

1 Scotland: sand hills especially along the seashore

2a: golf course

2b: a golf course on linksland

Examples

"Now that spring is here, it means that it's once again time for golfers to hit the links." 

— Jonathan Saxon, The Herald (Dubois County, Indiana), 27 Mar. 2019

"A giant 9-foot alligator surprised golfers Sunday at a course in Savannah, Georgia, when it suddenly appeared out of nearby brush and lumbered across the links." 

— Shelby Lin Erdman, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, 25 Mar. 2019

Did You Know?

The game of golf originated on the sandy hills of Scotland on a type of terrain known as links or linksland. Eventually, the game's layout came to be called by the same name as the land, and links developed the meaning of "a golf course built on the coastline," which eventually broadened to include any golf course. 

Links is ultimately derived from the Old English word hlincas, the plural of hlinc, meaning "ridge," and teed off in 15th-century Scottish English as a name for sandy, hilly terrain. Britain has a number of old-fashioned links courses (built to resemble the Scottish landscape and located on the coastline), and there are a few in the United States as well.

Ephemeral

WORD OF THE DAY

ephemeral / adjective / ih-FEM-uh-rul

Definition
1: lasting a very short time
2: lasting one day only

Examples
The young YouTube star's fame was ephemeral but surprisingly lucrative while it lasted.

"After winter, the garden comes to life with the planting of spring-blooming ephemeral bulbs such as naturalizing daffodils, crocus, tulips, snowdrops and hyacinths that appear before the tree canopy 'leafs out' and perennials burst forth…."
— The Parry Sound (Ontario) North Star, 6 Mar. 2019

Did You Know?
The mayfly (order Ephemeroptera) typically hatches, matures, mates, and dies within the span of a few short hours (though the longest-lived may survive a record two days); poets sometimes use this insect to symbolize life's ephemeral nature.
When ephemeral (from the Greek word ephēmeros, meaning "lasting a day") first appeared in print in English in the late 16th century, it was a scientific term applied to short-term fevers, and later, to organisms (such as insects and flowers) with very short life spans.
Soon after that, it acquired an extended sense referring to anything fleeting and short-lived, as in "ephemeral pleasures."

Asperity

WORD OF THE DAY

asperity / noun / uh-SPAIR-uh-tee

Definition
1a: roughness of manner or of temper
1b: harshness of behavior or speech that expresses bitterness or anger
2: rigor, severity
3a: roughness of surface
3b: unevenness
3c: roughness of sound

Examples
When Shelia asked Roger to make a contribution, he glared and said with asperity, "I already contributed—thank you."

"[Charles Portis's True Grit is] one of those rare American novels that can be enjoyed by young readers for action and dialogue and by older readers for the lowdown wit and the wonderful asperity of the narrator Mattie Ross, an elderly skinflint who spins out the tale of her long-ago adolescent pursuit of the outlaw wastrel who killed her father."
— Casey Seiler, The Times-Union (Albany, New York), 2 Sept. 2018

Did You Know?
The etymology of asperity is "rough." It is adapted from Middle English asprete, which was borrowed from the Anglo-French aspreté, and ultimately derives from the Latin word asper, which means "rough."
Not only is asper the source of asperity, but it also underlies the English word exasperate (in fact, you can see asper nestled in the midst of that word).
Although it is far less common than asperity and exasperate, the word asper itself is still occasionally used in English—it functions as a synonym of harsh, bitter, and stern.

Prodigious

WORD OF THE DAY

prodigious / adjective / pruh-DIJ-us

Definition
1a: resembling or befitting a prodigy
1b: strange, unusual
2: causing amazement or wonder
3a: extraordinary in bulk, quantity, or degree
3b: enormous

Examples
"Along with John Ashbery, his elder by two months, Mr. Merwin was one of the defining American poets of his generation, a prodigious and prolific talent who wrote two dozen books of poetry as well as story collections, memoirs, plays and acclaimed translations."
— Harrison Smith, The Washington Post, 15 Mar. 2019

"What you may have yet to encounter, or haven't fully noticed yet, is the growing group of current medical students who are perhaps on track to achieve even greater fame, through their prodigious and aggressive use of social media, particularly Instagram."
— Vishal Kheptal, Slate, 29 Nov. 2018

Did You Know?
Prodigious, monstrous, tremendous, and stupendous all mean extremely impressive. Prodigious suggests marvelousness exceeding belief, usually in something that is felt as going far beyond a previous maximum of goodness, greatness, intensity, or size ("acrobats performing prodigious aerial feats").
Monstrous implies a departure from the normal in size, form, or character ("a monstrous billboard"); it can also suggest that someone or something is ugly, cruel, or vicious ("a monstrous criminal"; "a monstrous crime").
Tremendous and stupendous both imply a power, the former to terrify or awe ("the singer has tremendous talent"), the latter to stun or astound ("the young cast gave a stupendous performance"). Prodigious and the related noun prodigy derive from the Latin prodigium, meaning "omen" or "monster"; at one time, both words were used in English to refer to portents, or omens, but these senses are now considered obsolete.

Valetudinarian

WORD OF THE DAY

valetudinarian / noun / val-uh-too-duh-NAIR-ee-un

Definition
1: a person of a weak or sickly constitution
2: one whose chief concern is his or her ill health

Examples
"Dukakis succeeds by balancing the over-the-top comedy with the right dose of realism. His Argan is at once exaggerated and recognizably human…. Paranoid about his health, this classic valetudinarian is really scared of dying alone and unloved."
— Charles McNulty, The Los Angeles Times, 17 Oct. 2016

"Starting when he [John Updike] was in his late 50's, it sometimes amused him to pretend to be a fogey and a valetudinarian. His submissions to The New Yorker … were often accompanied by a little note declaring that the enclosed was not very good and would probably be his last, because the well was going dry, the tank was empty, the field was fallow."
— Charles McGrath, The New York Times, 1 Feb. 2009

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