Importune

WORD OF THE DAY

importune / verb / im-per-TOON

Definition
1a: to press or urge with troublesome persistence
1b (archaic): to request or beg for urgently
2: annoy, trouble

Examples
"[Sarah] Polk feigned neutrality or loyalty, depending on what suited her, and she successfully importuned Andrew Johnson, the military governor of Tennessee and then American president, to pardon ex-rebels or to grant such favors as being able to sell her cotton untaxed."
— Megan Reynolds, Jezebel, 3 June 2019

"For nearly 40 years, Houstonian Jimmy Dunne has importuned Texas lawmakers to ban corporal punishment in Texas public schools, to no avail."
— The Houston Chronicle, 18 Mar. 2019

Did You Know?
Importune has many synonyms—including beg, entreat, beseech, and implore. Beg suggests earnestness or insistence especially in asking for a favor ("the children begged to stay up late"). 

Entreat implies an effort to persuade or to overcome resistance ("she entreated him to change his mind"). 

Beseech implies great eagerness or anxiety ("I beseech you to have mercy"), and implore adds to beseech a suggestion of greater urgency or anguished appeal ("he implored her not to leave him"). 

But it is importune that best conveys irritating doggedness in trying to break down resistance to a request and the accompanying annoyance ("the filmmakers were importuning viewers for contributions"), as it has since Middle English speakers adopted it from Anglo-French

Phalanx

WORD OF THE DAY

phalanx / noun / FAY-lanks

Definition
1a: a body of heavily armed infantry in ancient Greece formed in close deep ranks and files
1b: a body of troops in close array
2: one of the digital bones of the hand or foot of a vertebrate
3a: a massed arrangement of persons, animals, or things
3b: an organized body of persons

Examples
"Despite Beyoncé missing in action, Skylar Grey filled her shoes admirably, as she sang the hook and played the piano. In addition to Grey, a phalanx of violinists helped anchor the heartfelt performance."
— Carl Lamarre, Billboard.com,12 Nov. 2017

"This specimen … is the middle phalanx of a human middle finger. It was collected from the Nefud desert of Saudi Arabia by Huw Groucutt of Oxford University and his colleagues. In a paper just published in Nature Ecology & Evolution they report that uranium-thorium isotopic dating suggests it is 88,000 years old…."
— The Economist, 14 Apr. 2018

Did You Know?
The original sense of phalanx refers to a military formation that was used in ancient warfare and consisted of a tight block of soldiers standing shoulder to shoulder, several rows deep, often with shields joined. 

The word phalanx comes from the Greeks, though they were not the only ones who used this formation. The Greek term literally means "log" and was used for both this line of battle and for a bone in a finger or toe. The word and its senses passed into Latin and then were adopted into English in the 16th century. 

These days, a phalanx can be any arranged mass, whether of persons, animals, or things, or a body of people organized in a particular effort.

Addlepated

WORD OF THE DAY

addlepated / adjective / AD-ul-pay-tud

Definition
1a: being mixed up
1b: confused
2: eccentric

Examples
"Her addlepated mind flitted butterfly-like from one often unrelated subject to another."
— Tessa Harris, The Anatomist's Apprentice, 2011

"[Nick Park's] best-known creations are the addlepated, cheese-loving inventor Wallace, and Gromit, his patient, intelligent dog. Park's work helped to spark a new blossoming of stop-motion animation…."
— Charles Solomon, The Los Angeles Times, 15 Feb. 2018

Did You Know?
In Middle English an adel eye was a putrid egg. The stench of such an egg apparently affected the minds of some witty thinkers, who hatched a comparison between the diminished, unsound quality of an adel eye (or addle egg as it came to be called in modern English) and an empty, confused head—or pate. 

"Your owne imagination, which was no lesse Idle, then your head was addle all that day," wrote one 17th-century wit at play with the words idle and addle. 

Today, addle is often found in combination with words referring to one's noggin, as in addlepated, addlebrained, and addle-headed.

Motley

WORD OF THE DAY

motley / adjective / MAHT-lee

Definition
1: variegated in color
2: made up of many different people or things

Examples
Many of the jesters at the medieval festival were dressed in a bright motley garb.

"Geena Davis will guest star in the third season of 'GLOW,' the Netflix comedy series about a motley crew of female wrestlers."
— Lillian Brown, The Boston Globe, 11 June 2019

Did You Know?
Motley made its debut as an English adjective and noun in the 14th century, but etymologists aren't completely sure where it came from. Many think it probably derived from the Middle English mot, meaning "mote" or "speck." 

The word is also used as a noun identifying a multicolored fabric, a garment made from such a fabric, or—perhaps the best known sense of all—the fool who often wore such outfits in the European courts of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance.

Undergird

WORD OF THE DAY

undergird / verb / un-der-GERD

Definition
1 (archaic): to make secure underneath
2a: to form the basis or foundation of
2b: strengthen, support

Examples
"The organ tones that undergirded much of her recent work suggested a secular version of the church nave. Here, the walls close in and we're transported somewhere deceptively plain, to what might be an afternoon recital in someone's home."
— Thea Ballard, Pitchfork, 8 June 2019

"We were taught that the right to vote undergirds all other rights, that free and fair elections are necessary for social progress."
— Stacey Abrams, The New York Times, 15 May 2019

Did You Know?
The English verb gird means, among other things, "to encircle or bind with a flexible band." 

When undergird first entered English in the 16th century, it meant "to make secure underneath," as by passing a rope or chain underneath something (such as a ship). 

That literal sense has long since fallen out of use, but in the 19th century undergird picked up the figurative "strengthen" or "support" sense that we still use. 

Gird and consequently undergird both derive from the Old English geard, meaning "enclosure" or "yard." 

Gird also gives us girder, a noun referring to a horizontal piece supporting a structure.

Hapless

WORD OF THE DAY

hapless / adjective / HAP-lus

Definition

1: having no luck 

2: unfortunate

Examples

"Whatever your view of Team USA's rout over Thailand or the way they celebrated every goal over that hapless opponent, the 13-0 opening victory fueled conversation and interest for Sunday's United States-Chile match." 

— Phil Rosenthal, The Chicago Tribune, 18 June 2019

"David Bareford got into violence design when he was living in Chicago and struggling along as 'an OK actor in a town where there were a million OK actors….' He decided not to fight those odds; instead he embraced the stage-combat skills that came from acting in Shakespeare tragedies, which usually involve kings, soldiers and other hapless figures eagerly running one another through." 

— Scott Hewitt, The Columbian (Vancouver, Washington), 13 June 2019

Did You Know?

Hapless literally means what you'd expect it to mean: "without hap" — hap being another word for fortune or luck. Hap derives from the Old Norse word for "good luck," a word that is also the source of our happen and happy. 

English has several words to describe those lacking good fortune, including ill-starred, ill-fated, unlucky, and luckless, a word formed in parallel to hapless by adding the suffix -less. 

Ill-starred suggests bringing calamity or the threat of a terrible fate ("the ill-starred year the Great Depression began"). Ill-fated refers only to being doomed ("the ill-fated voyage of the Titanic"). 

Unlucky and luckless usually apply to a person or thing notably or chronically unfortunate ("an unlucky slots player," "some luckless investors swindled in the deal").

Desideratum

WORD OF THE DAY

desideratum / noun / dih-sid-uh-RAH-tum

Definition

: something desired as essential

Examples

"The strength of his class depended to some extent on sound money management—but depended to a much larger extent on marriages based cynically on the sorts of children likely to be produced. Healthy, charming, wise children were the desiderata." 

— Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., The Sirens of Titan, 1959

"The year was 1953, and most American children were secretly wishing, praying and writing letters to Santa Claus promising to be nice rather than naughty in return for that ultimate desideratum of gifts: the 'real, live pony.'" 

— Ken Jennings, The Petoskey (Michigan) News-Review, 24 Dec. 2014

Did You Know?

We'd like to introduce you to some close cousins of the common word desire. All trace their roots to the Latin sīder-, or sīdus, which has historically been understood to mean "heavenly body," but which may also have an older, non-celestial meaning of "mark, target, goal." 

Whether etymologically starry or grounded, dēsīderāre, meaning "to long for," was born when Latin de- was prefixed to sīder-. Dēsīderāre begat Anglo-French desirer, which in turn brought forth English desire, desirous, and desirable in the 13th and 14th centuries, with desideration following in the 15th. 

Then, in the 17th century, English acquired desierate ("to wish for") and desideratum(desiderata in the plural), all of which can lay claim to direct ancestry from desiderare.

Whinge

WORD OF THE DAY

whinge / verb / WINJ

Definition
1: to complain fretfully (British)
2: whine

Examples
"I was angry, I went home to my wife and I complained. I was whinging an Olympic level of whinging to Deb, my wife, and moaning about this person and that person."
— Hugh Jackman, quoted in MailOnline, 4 June 2019

"For those who whinged that the Freddie Mercury biopic 'Bohemian Rhapsody' played fast and loose with the facts and the timeline—and I was one—it must be said that director Dexter Fletcher's Elton John movie 'Rocketman' takes even more liberties with truth."
— Jim Sullivan, WBUR.org, 31 May 2019

Did You Know?
Whinge isn't a simple spelling variant of whine. Whinge and whine are actually entirely different words with separate histories. Whine traces to an Old English verb, hwinan, which means "to make a humming or whirring sound." 

When hwinan became whinen in Middle English, it meant "to wail distressfully"; whine didn't acquire its "complain" sense until the 16th century. Whinge, on the other hand, comes from a different Old English verb, hwinsian, which means "to wail or moan discontentedly." 

Whinge retains that original sense today, though nowadays it puts less emphasis on the sound of the complaining and more on the discontentment behind the complaint.

Gnomic

WORD OF THE DAY

gnomic / adjective / NOH-mik

Definition
1: characterized by aphorism
2: given to the composition of aphoristic writing

Examples
"That narrative power is real, as in the case of Shireen, but it came not from having a story but from telling it and persuading others of its truth. And we didn't see a trace of that in Bran's ascension. He generally fails to speak in anything other than fractured, gnomic phrases. He doesn't tend to connect."
— Amy Davidson Sorkin, The New Yorker, 21 May 2019

"Mr. Marshall … was known for challenging established ways of thinking and for acquiring a reputation as the Pentagon's 'Yoda,' after the wise, gnomic Jedi master of 'Star Wars.'"
— Matt Schudel, The Washington Post, 27 Mar. 2019

Did You Know?
A gnome is an aphorism (BONUS WORD: an observation or sentiment reduced to the form of a saying.)
Gnomes are sometimes couched in metaphorical or figurative language, they are often quite clever, and they are always concise. 

We borrowed the word gnome in the 16th century from the Greeks, who based their gnome on the verb gignōskein, meaning "to know." 

(The other gnome—referring to the dwarf of folklore—comes from New Latin and is unrelated to the aphoristic gnome.)
We began using gnomic, the adjective form of gnome, in the late 18th century. It describes a style of writing, or sometimes speech, characterized by pithy phrases, which are often terse to the point of mysteriousness.

Speculate

WORD OF THE DAY

speculate / verb / SPEK-yuh-layt

Definition

1a: to meditate on or ponder a subject 

1b: reflect

1c: to review something idly or casually and often inconclusively

2a: to assume a business risk in hope of gain

2b: to buy or sell in expectation of profiting from market fluctuations

3a: to take to be true on the basis of insufficient evidence3b: theorize

4a: to be curious or doubtful about

4b: wonder

Examples

"Both celebrities have been tweeting each other for a while now, leading fans to speculate about their relationship status." 

— Suzette Fernandez, Billboard.com, 5 June 2019

"Live footage showed that two hundred firefighters were attempting to tame the flames. Meanwhile talking heads droned on and on, speculating about the source of the spark that destroyed the cathedral's wooden roof and nave or how many billions it would cost to rebuild." 

— Christopher Schaefer, Commonweal, 17 May 2019

Did You Know?

Speculate was adopted into English in the late 16th century from Latin speculatus, the past participle of the verb speculari, which means "to spy out" or "to examine." 

Speculari, in turn, derives from specula, meaning "lookout post," and ultimately from the Latin verb specere, meaning "to look (at)." 

Other conspicuous descendants of specere are inspect and suspect. Some less obvious descendants are the words despise, species, specimen, and as you may have speculated, conspicuous.

Provender

WORD OF THE DAY

provender / noun / PRAH-vun-der

Definition
1a: dry food for domestic animals
1b: feed
2: food, victuals

Examples
The restaurant's chef-owner prides himself on creating dishes from local provender.

"While these fish with their underslung mouths will eat insects, crayfish, mollusks, and other provender, a garden worm or piece of nightcrawler on the hook will work just fine."
— Christopher Balusik, The Mansfield (Ohio) News Journal, 30 Mar. 2019

Did You Know?
When English speakers first chewed on the word provender around 1300, it referred to a stipend (also known as a prebend) that a clergyman received from his cathedral or collegiate church. Within a half a century, the word's current meanings had developed.
These days you're most likely to encounter provender in articles written by food and travel writers. 

A few such writers confuse provender with purveyor, meaning "a person or business that sells or provides something," but most of them keep the words straight, as Deidre Schipani does in this quote from the Post and Courier, of Charleston, South Carolina: "The kitchen remains true to its local roots. Buying from island farmers, fisherman, shrimpers, butchers and small local artisans keeps the provender and purveyors in alignment."

Auxiliary

WORD OF THE DAY

auxiliary / adjective / awg-ZILL-yuh-ree

Definition
1a: offering or providing help
1b: functioning in a subsidiary capacity
2 (of a verb): accompanying another verb and typically expressing person, number, mood, or tense
3a : supplementary
3b: constituting a reserve
4 (of a boat): equipped with sails and a supplementary inboard engine

Examples
"And meantime I had an auxiliary interest which had never paled yet, never lost its novelty for me since I had been in Arthur's kingdom: the behavior—born of nice and exact subdivisions of caste—of chance passers-by toward each other."
— Mark Twain, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, 1889

"Graduating from big-name schools translates into better jobs and higher salaries, according to conventional wisdom. Plus, there are the auxiliary benefits that also lead to cash—powerful alumni networks, name recognition that attracts the interest of hiring managers and the right collegiate brand to catapult graduating seniors to top-notch graduate schools, which are themselves tickets to more money."
— Zlati Meyer, USA Today, 18 March 2019

Did You Know?
Auxiliary is used in a wide range of capacities in English to describe a person or thing that assists another. A fire department may bring in auxiliary units, for example, to battle a tough blaze, or a sailboat may be equipped with auxiliary engines to supply propulsion when the wind disappears. 

In grammar, an auxiliary verb assists another (main) verb to express person, number, mood, or tense, such as have in "They have been informed." The Latin source of auxiliary is auxilium, meaning "help."

Nosegay

WORD OF THE DAY

nosegay / noun NOHZ-gay PrevNext
Definition
1: a small bunch of flowers
2: posy

Examples
"On arrival, the Queen was presented with her traditional nosegay of fresh spring flowers…."
— Robert Hardman, The Daily Mail (London), 19 Apr. 2019

"Many of the boys also were ordering nosegays or wrist corsages for their dates. 'I just had a group of three boys coming in with pictures on their phones of the girls' dresses,' [Megan] Mitchell said several days before the prom. The boys want the flowers to match the color of the dresses."
— Kimberly Fornek, The Chicago Tribune, 6 May 2019
Did You Know?
Nosegay is a homegrown word—that is, it originated in English. 15th-century Middle English speakers joined nose (which meant then what it does today) with gay (which, at the time, meant "ornament"). 

That makes nosegay an appropriate term for a bunch of flowers, which is indeed an ornament that appeals to the nose. Today, the word nosegay is especially common in the bridal business, where it usually refers to a specific type of bouquet: a round, tight bunch of flowers as opposed to a cascading bouquet or other type of arrangement. 

Occasionally, the word is used metaphorically for things that somehow resemble a bouquet. For example, a compact collection of enjoyably lighthearted short stories might be called "a nosegay of a book."

Dearth

WORD OF THE DAY

dearth / noun / DERTH

Definition
1a: scarcity that makes dear
1b: famine
2a: an inadequate supply
2b: lack

Examples
"In an age of extreme polarization and dearth of good will, music is a powerful force that brings people together…."
— Aaron Davis, letter in Billboard.com, 26 Apr. 2019

"The dearth of taller trees to filter sunlight has also accelerated the growth of low-lying wax myrtles and palmettos…."
— Elizabeth Koh, The Miami Herald, 5 June 2019

Did You Know?
The facts about the history of the word dearth are quite simple: the word derives from the Middle English form derthe, which has the same meaning as our modern term. 

That Middle English form is assumed to have developed from an Old English form that was probably spelled dierth and was related to dēore, the Old English form that gave us the word dear. (Dear also once meant "scarce," but that sense of the word is now obsolete.) 

Dearth, in one form or another, has been used to describe things that are in short supply since at least the 13th century, when it often referred to a shortage of food.

Ostentatious

WORD OF THE DAY

ostentatious / adjective / ah-stun-TAY-shus

Definition
1: attracting or seeking to attract attention, admiration, or envy often by gaudiness or obviousness
2a: overly elaborate or conspicuous
2b: characterized by, fond of, or evincing ostentation

Examples
Since striking it rich, Edwin has embraced a more ostentatious lifestyle, wearing expensive designer clothes, driving high-end sports cars, and frequenting the trendiest upscale nightclubs.

"The ostentatious chandeliers in the Crystal Room have been replaced with elegant-but-unassuming lighting."
— Damon Cline, The Augusta Chronicle, 17 Apr. 2019

Did You Know?
Showy, pretentious, and ostentatious all mean "given to outward display," but there are subtle differences in their meanings. 

Showy implies an imposing or striking appearance, but usually also implies cheapness or bad taste. Pretentious suggests an appearance of importance not justified by a thing's value or a person's standing. 

Ostentatious is the biggest show-off, stressing the vanity of the display. English speakers derived ostentatious from the noun ostentation, which can be traced back, via Middle French, to the Latin verb ostentare (meaning "to display"), a frequentative form of the verb ostendere, meaning "to show."

Lionize

WORD OF THE DAY

lionize / verb / LYE-uh-nyze 

Definition
: to treat as an object of great interest or importance

Examples
While her name was not attached to her books in her lifetime (she published anonymously), Jane Austen continues two centuries hence to be lionized as one of the English language's greatest novelists.

"The battle for Pointe du Hoc became one of the most heroic moments of the D-Day invasion. It was lionized by the legendary Hollywood film 'The Longest Day' and by President Ronald Reagan, who stood on this hallowed ground to deliver one of his most famous speeches, extolling the bravery of the 'Boys of Pointe du Hoc' on the 40th anniversary…." 
— Scott Higham, The Washington Post, 3 June 2019

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

Flair

WORD OF THE DAY

flair / noun / FLAIR

Definition

1a: a skill or instinctive ability to appreciate or make good use of something 

1b: talent

1c: inclination, tendency

2a: a uniquely attractive quality 

2b: style

Examples

"Chef Rohan is proficient in handling specialty restaurants and has a flair for culinary art trends." 

— Business World, 1 Apr. 2019

"It's rare for a pop artist's signature single to encapsulate all of their respective strengths, but 'Bad Romance' manages to do so for Gaga, capturing her grandiose aesthetic, daring songwriting, lyrical flourishes and dramatic vocal flair." 

— Jason Lipshutz, Billboard.com, 28 Mar. 2019

Did You Know?

In the 14th century, if someone told you that you had flair (or flayre as it was then commonly spelled), you might very well take offense. 

This is because in Middle English flayre meant "an odor." The word is derived from the Old French verb flairier ("to give off an odor"), which came, in turn, from Late Latin flagrare, itself an alteration of fragrare. (The English words fragrant and fragrance also derive from fragrare.) The "odor" sense of flair fell out of use, but in the 19th century, 

English speakers once again borrowed flair from the French—this time (influenced by the Modern French use of the word for the sense of smell) to indicate a discriminating sense or instinctive discernment.

Metathesis

WORD OF THE DAY

metathesis / noun / muh-TATH-uh-sis

Definition
1: a change of place or condition: such as:
    a : transposition of two phonemes in a word
    b : a chemical reaction in which different kinds of molecules exchange parts to form other kinds of molecules

Examples
The study examined metathesis in the speech of children between the ages of three and six.

"'Aks' and 'ask' both derive from one verb in Old English that featured the same transposition of sounds and gave rise to two equally-valid pronunciations: 'ascian' and 'acsian.' In linguistic terminology, this transposition, or swapping of sounds, is called metathesis….'"
— Jordan MacKenzie, The Independent Florida Alligator (University of Florida), 10 Feb. 2016
Did You Know?
One familiar example of metathesis is the English word thrill, which was thyrlian in Old English and thirlen in Middle English. 

By the late 16th century, native English speakers had switched the placement of the 'r' to form thrill. 

Another example is the alteration of curd into crud (the earliest sense of which was, unsurprisingly, curd). 

It probably won't surprise you to learn that the origin of metathesis lies in the idea of transposition—the word was borrowed into English in the mid-16th century and derives via Late Latin from the Greek verb metatithenai, meaning "to transpose."

Inkhorn

WORD OF THE DAY

inkhorn / adjective / INK-horn

Definition

1: ostentatiously learned 

2: pedantic

Examples

Richard's use of inkhorn terminology in his essay didn't impress his professor, whereas simple language demonstrating a clear understanding of the material would have done the trick.

"Inkhorn terms understandably struck many of their readers as incomprehensible, verbal zombies scarily mixed among—and feeding off—unsuspecting, humble English." 

— Leslie Dunton-Downer, The English is Coming!, 2010

Did You Know?

Picture an ancient scribe, pen in hand, a small ink bottle made from an animal's horn strapped to his belt, ready to record the great events of history. In 14th-century England, such ink bottles were dubbed (not surprisingly) inkhorns. 

During the Renaissance, learned writers often borrowed words from Latin and Greek, eschewing vulgar English alternatives. But in the 16th century, some scholars argued for the use of native terms over Latinate forms, and a lively intellectual debate over the merits of each began. 

Those who favored English branded what they considered ostentatious Latinisms "inkhorn terms" after the bottles carried by scholars, and since then we have used inkhorn as an adjective for Latinate or pretentious language.

Girandole

Word of the Day

girandole / noun / JEER-un-dohl

Definition

1 : a radiating and showy composition (such as a cluster of  skyrockets fired together)

2 : an ornamental branched candlestick

3 : a pendant earring usually with three ornaments hanging from a central piece

Examples

"The centerpiece of the decorative program was the figure of Eternity seated on a triumphal chariot drawn by four horses, itself a fuoco d'artificio (fireworks spectacle), and flanked by two smaller girandoles of three hundred rockets each." 

— Kevin Salatino, Incendiary Art: The Representation of Fireworks in Early Modern Europe, 1997

"The magnificent hall hints at extravagance within: The walls are lined in pleated pistachio silk; … glimmering crystal girandoles stand sentry beside the fireplace." 

— Plum Sykes, Vogue, 19 Mar. 2018

Did You Know?

The earliest uses of girandole in English, in the 17th century, referred to a kind of firework or to something, such as a fountain, with a radiating pattern like that of a firework. 

Such a pattern is reflected in the word's etymology: girandole can be traced back by way of French and Italian to the Latin word gyrus, meaning "gyre" or "a circular or spiral motion or form." 

By the 18th century, girandole was being used for a branched candlestick, perhaps due to its resemblance to the firework. 

The word's use for a kind of earring was lit during the 19th century.

Sedulous

WORD OF THE DAY

sedulous / adjective / SEJ-uh-lus

Definition
1: involving or accomplished with careful perseverance
2: diligent in application or pursuit

Examples
"To start: a black screen, her name in white. As the overture plays, the scene unfolds with sedulous magic—smoke and steam coil and unfurl, lightening the screen and darkening her name. A man with a lantern appears, tumbling through space, as the architecture of a train station emerges through the condensation of vapor."
— Irene Hsiao, The Chicago Reader, 19 Feb. 2019

"The charter elementary school where I work, while pedagogically inspiring and impressively staffed, is a reflection of our education system as a whole: sedulous people stretched too thin; classrooms with too many bodies; little, if any, funding."
— Natalie Babcock, The Los Angeles Times, 9 Dec. 2018

Did You Know?
No fooling—the word sedulous ultimately comes from Latin se dolus, which literally means "without guile." Those two words were eventually melded into one, sedulo, meaning "sincerely" or "diligently," and from that root developed Latin sedulus and English sedulous. 

Don't let the sed- beginning mislead you; sedulous is not related to words such as sedentary or sedate (those derive from the Latin verb sedēre, meaning "to sit"). 

Sedulous people are not the sedate or sedentary sort. They're the hardworking types Scottish author Samuel Smiles must have had in mind when he wrote in his 1859 book Self-Help, "Sedulous attention and painstaking industry always mark the true worker."

Burgeon

WORD OF THE DAY

burgeon / verb / BER-jun

Definition
1a: to send forth new growth (such as buds or branches)
1b: sprout
1c: bloom
2a: to grow and expand rapidly
2b: flourish

Examples
The trout population in the stream has burgeoned since the town implemented its laws against overfishing.

"Original plans called for Hollywood Studios to be an entertainment pavilion…. But as concepts burgeoned among Disney's 'Imagineers,' it became clear that there was enough material to make this pavilion a theme park of its own."
— Bruce Pecho, The Florida Times-Union, 5 May 2019

Did You Know?
Burgeon first appeared in Middle English as burjonen—a borrowing from the Anglo-French burjuner, meaning "to bud or sprout." 

Burgeon is often used figuratively, as when writer P. G. Wodehouse used it in the 1946 novel Joy in the Morning: "I weighed this. It sounded promising. Hope began to burgeon." Usage commentators have objected to the use of burgeon to mean "to flourish" or "to grow rapidly," insisting that any figurative use should stay true to the word's earliest literal meaning and distinguish budding or sprouting from subsequent growing. 

But the sense of burgeon that indicates growing or expanding and prospering (as in "the burgeoning music scene" or "the burgeoning international market") has been in established use for decades and is, in fact, the most common use of burgeon today.

Afflatus

WORD OF THE DAY

afflatus / noun / uh-FLAY-tus

Definition
1: a divine imparting of knowledge or power
2: inspiration

Examples
"Allmusic lists quite a few tunes called 'Crystal City,' like this smooth-jazz number by André Ward and this prog-rock song by Steve Hillage, but it wasn't immediately clear whether the Arlington neighborhood served as afflatus for any of them."
— Andrew Beaujon, Washingtonian, 13 Nov. 2018

"If one were to throw away the 300 cantatas, the 100-odd chorale preludes, the three oratorios, the passions, and the Mass (which would be the equivalent of destroying half of Shakespeare), still the other half would sustain Bach as a creature whose afflatus is inexplicable in the absence of a belief in God."
— William F. Buckley Jr., The Universal Press Syndicate, 23 Mar. 1985

Did You Know?
Inspiration might be described as a breath of fresh air, and so it is appropriate that inspire derives in part from a word meaning "to breathe"—Latin spirare. 

Afflatus is a lesser-known word for inspiration that followed a parallel route. Afflatus, which in Latin means "the act of blowing or breathing on," was formed from the prefix ad- ("to, toward") and the Latin verb flare ("to blow"). 

That Latin verb gave us such words as inflate and (via French) soufflé. The Roman orator Cicero used afflatus in his writings to compare the appearance of a new idea to a breath of fresh air. 

Nowadays, one often finds the word preceded by the adjective divine, but poets and artists can find afflatus in the material world as well.