Contestation

 WORD OF THE DAY

contestation / noun / kahn-tess-TAY-shun

Definition

: controversy, debate

Examples

The book examines how political contestation has changed in recent decades.

"But the First World War took a heavy toll on Britain…. The war also gave rise to contestations of British rule in countries such as India and Iraq." 

— Louis A. Delvoie, The Owen Sound (Ontario, Canada) Sun Times, 11 Dec. 2020

Did You Know?

The Latin phrase lītem contestārī can be translated as "to join issue in a legal suit," which in layperson's terms means to reach the point in a lawsuit when it's clear to the parties involved what the exact nature of the dispute is. 

Lītem contestārī is the probable ultimate source of both contestation and contest, the latter having first come to English as a verb meaning "to make the subject of dispute, contention, or battle." 

But while contest has gone on to have a life at home in another part of speech and in contexts ranging from sports to art, contestation continues to dwell mainly in serious speech and writing about adversarial dynamics between groups of people.

Prerogative

WORD OF THE DAY

prerogative / noun / prih-RAH-guh-tiv

Definition
1a: an exclusive or special right, power, or privilege which may include -
    (i) : one belonging to an office or an official body
   (ii) : one belonging to a person, group, or class of individuals
  (iii) : one possessed by a nation as an attribute of sovereignty
1b: the discretionary power inhering in the British Crown
2: a distinctive excellence

Examples
"The prerogative of civilian leaders to decide military matters is a key tenet of American constitutional governance and healthy civilian-military relations…."
— Jason Dempsey, The New Republic, 13 Apr. 2020

"Today we assume that the First Amendment's guarantees of freedom of speech and assembly will protect even unpopular speech and demonstrations against such claims of governmental prerogative. But it was not always so. When the ACLU was founded in 1920, protestors were being criminally prosecuted for saying unpopular things—like criticizing the draft during World War I."
— Susan N. Herman, Time, 20 Nov. 2015

Did You Know?
In ancient Rome, voting at legal assemblies was done by group, with the majority in a group determining its vote.
The group chosen to vote first on an issue was called the praerogativa (that term traces to a verb meaning "to ask for an opinion before another").
Because the first vote was considered to be of great importance, Latin speakers also used the noun praerogativa to mean "preference" and later "privilege."
As praerogativa passed through Anglo-French and Middle English, its spelling shifted to create the noun we know today.

Constitution

WORD OF THE DAY

constitution / noun / kahn-stuh-TOO-shun

Definition
1a: the basic principles and laws of a nation, state, or social group that determine the powers and duties of the government and guarantee certain rights to the people in it
1b: a written instrument embodying the rules of a political or social organization
2a: the physical makeup of the individual especially with respect to the health, strength, and appearance of the body
2b: the structure, composition, physical makeup, or nature of something
3a: an established law or custom
3b: ordinance
4: the act of establishing, making, or setting up

Examples
"Historically, Americans maintained the agility of democracy by amending the constitution, on average, at least once a decade, until the pace stalled, half a century ago. Other than a minor amendment in 1992, to adjust congressional salaries, the last major change to the constitution was in 1971, when the voting age was lowered to eighteen."
— Evan Osnos, The New Yorker, 9 Nov. 2020

"Clearly designed for those with a strong constitution, the ride was shown tilting upside down in the video, with a caption asking 'who's got a stomach brave enough to go on the Mega Spin?!'"
— Barbara Hodgson, Chronicle Live (UK), 2 Mar. 2020

Did You Know?
Constitution was constituted in 14th-century English as a word indicating an established law or custom.
It is from Latin constitutus, the past participle of constituere, meaning "to set up," which is based on an agreement of the prefix com- ("with, together, jointly") with the verb statuere ("to set or place").
Statuere is the root of statute, which, like constitution, has a legal background; it refers to a set law, rule, or regulation.
Constitution is also the name for a system of laws and principles by which a country, state, or organization is governed or the document written as a record of them.
Outside of law, the word is used in reference to the physical health or condition of the body ("a person of hearty constitution") or to the form or structure of something ("the molecular constitution of the chemical").

 

Suffrage

WORD OF THE DAY

suffrage / noun / SUF-rij

Definition

1: a short intercessory prayer usually in a series

2: a vote given in deciding a controverted question or electing a person for an office or trust

3a: the right of voting 

3b: franchise

3c: the exercise of such right

Examples

"The assembled citizens who spoke out against slavery and demanded universal suffrage have contemporary counterparts demanding racial justice today." 

— Ken Paulson, The Tennessean (Nashville, Tennessee), 13 Dec. 2020

"The struggle for women's suffrage began well before 1920 and more freedom for women has extended beyond the ratification of the 19th Amendment in 1920…." 

— The Hickory (North Carolina) Daily Record, 10 Dec. 2020

Did You Know?

Why would a 17th-century writer warn people that a chapel was only for "private or secret suffrages"? Because suffrage has been used since the 14th century to mean "prayer" (especially a prayer requesting divine help or intercession). 

So how did suffrage come to mean "a vote" or "the right to vote"? 

To answer that, we must look to the word's Medieval Latin ancestor, suffrāgium, which can be translated as meaning "vote," "support," or "prayer." That term produced descendants in a number of languages, and English picked up its senses of suffrage from two different places. 

We took the "prayer" sense from a Middle French suffrāgium offspring that emphasized the word's spiritual aspects, and we elected to adopt the "voting" senses directly from the original Latin.

Noel

 WORD OF THE DAY

noel / noun /  noh-EL

Definition

1: a Christmas carol

2 (capitalized): Christmas

Examples

"No surprise, the 12 tracks aren't exactly traditional noels. They celebrate the season with upbeat, fast songs about animals, food, pirates, and more." 

— Michael Walsh, Nerdist, 6 Nov. 2020

"Dating from the 17th century, the privately owned chateau—the original inspiration for the palace of Versailles—stages a Noel to remember. Festive decorations fill each room, the smell of cinnamon and spices wafts through the corridors, the gardens are strung with lights, and an enormous Christmas tree lords over the Grand Salon." 

— Mary Winston Nicklin, The Luxury Travel Advisor, 1 Nov. 2018

Did You Know?

English speakers borrowed the word noel from French. 

It can be traced further back to the Latin word natalis, which can mean "birthday" as a noun or "of or relating to birth" as an adjective. (The English adjective natal has the same meaning and is also an offspring of natalis.) 

Noels were being sung in Latin or French for centuries before English-speakers started using the word to refer to Christmas carols in the 18th century. 

An early use of noel (spelled nowell) to mean "Christmas" can be found in the text of the late 14th-century Arthurian legend Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.

Efficacious

 WORD OF THE DAY

efficacious / adjective / ef-uh-KAY-shus

Definition

1: having the power to produce a desired effect

Examples

"And as I mentioned, at the conference today, vaccines are close by. They're coming. I said 'Help is on the way,' which to me, I think, should motivate people, even more, to double down because pretty soon we're going to get a heck of a lot of help from a very efficacious vaccine." 

— Doctor Anthony Fauci, quoted on CNN, 19 Nov. 2020

"Facebook also employs fact-checking tags, but there are mixed opinions about whether these efforts are efficacious or cause users to double-down on their preconceptions." 

— Scott Nover, Adweek, 28 Apr. 2020

Did You Know?

Effective, effectual, and efficient are synonyms of efficacious, but each of these words has a slightly different connotation. 

Efficacious suggests possession of a special quality or virtue that makes it possible to achieve a result ("a detergent that is efficacious in removing grease"). 

Effective stresses the power to produce or the actual production of a particular effect ("an effective rebuttal"), while effectual suggests the accomplishment of a desired result, especially as viewed after the fact ("measures taken to reduce underage drinking have proved effectual"). 

The last synonym, efficient, implies an acting or potential for acting that avoids loss or waste of energy ("an efficient small car").

Opprobrium

 WORD OF THE DAY

opprobrium / noun / uh-PROH-bree-um

Definition
1: something that brings disgrace
2a: public disgrace or ill fame that follows from conduct considered grossly wrong or vicious
2b: contempt, reproach

Examples
"Nonetheless, I remained a fellow traveler. In those days, the term was one of approval, not opprobrium."
— Ellen Feldman, Scottsboro, 2008

"After abruptly announcing lockdown plans for England, Prime Minister Boris Johnson now faces opprobrium from allies and adversaries alike who say he has either gone too far or acted too slowly."
— Natasha Frost, The New York Times, 2 Nov. 2020

Did You Know?
Opprobrium was borrowed into English from Latin in the 17th century.
It derives from the Latin verb opprobrare, which means "to reproach." That verb, in turn, came from the noun probrum, meaning "disgraceful act" or "reproach."
The adjective form of opprobrium is opprobrious, which in English means "scurrilous" or "infamous." One might commit an "opprobrious crime" or be berated with "opprobrious language," for example. Probrum gave English another word too, but you might have a little trouble guessing it.
It is exprobrate, an archaic synonym of censure and upbraid

Presage

 WORD OF THE DAY

presage / verb / PRESS-ij

Definition
1a: to give an omen or warning of
1b: foreshadow
2: foretell, predict
3: to make or utter a prediction

Examples
The sudden gloom and ominous dark clouds clearly presaged a nasty storm.

"With its ominous soundtrack and use of abrupt black screens to presage dark events, the film evokes a mood of inevitability and gloom."
— Peter Keough, The Boston Globe, 22 Oct. 2020

Did You Know?
The verb presage was predated by a noun presage, meaning "omen."
Both forms derive from the Latin prefix prae- combined with the adjective sagus, meaning "prophetic." Foretell, predict, forecast, prophesy, and presage all mean "to tell beforehand."
Foretell applies to telling of a future event by any procedure or any source of information ("seers foretold the calamity").
Predict commonly implies inference from facts or accepted laws of nature ("astronomers predicted an eclipse").
Forecast implies anticipating eventualities and is usually concerned with probabilities ("the meteorologist forecasts snow").
Prophesy connotes inspired or mystic knowledge of the future ("the soothsayer prophesied a new messiah").
Presage may apply to suggesting a coming event or indicating its likelihood.

Gelid

 WORD OF THE DAY

gelid / adjective / JELL-id

Definition

1: extremely cold 

2: icy

Examples

"A fleet of military aircraft and navy and merchant ships continue searching the gelid waters north of Antarctica for a Chilean Air Force cargo plane that went missing on Monday evening with 38 people on board." 

— Pascale Bonnefoy and Austin Ramzy, The New York Times, 11 Dec. 2019

"Back at school, January is gelid. The roads around campus are two inches deep in slush left behind from a New Year's Day snowstorm." 

— Koren Zailckas, Smashed, 2005

Did You Know?

Gelid first appeared in English late in the 16th century, coming to our language from Latin gelidus, which ultimately derives from the noun gelu, meaning "frost" or "cold." 

The noun gelatin, which can refer to an edible jelly that undergoes a cooling process as part of its formation, comes from a related Latin word: gelare, meaning "to freeze." 

Gelid is used to describe anything of extremely cold temperature (as in "the gelid waters of the Arctic Ocean"), but the word can also be used figuratively to describe a person with a cold demeanor (as in "the criminal's gelid stare").

Idiopathic

 WORD OF THE DAY

idiopathic / adjective / id-ee-uh-PATH-ik

Definition
1a: arising spontaneously or from an obscure or unknown cause
1b: primary
2: peculiar to the individual

Examples
"Konnikova is a popular psychology writer…. Her interest was sparked by the unfairness of life—idiopathic illness striking at random, her husband's start-up failing, and so on."
— Hermione Eyre, The Spectator, 27 June 2020

"There are a number of reports of individuals who have developed an idiopathic (unexplained) inability to sweat during military and extreme training."
— Adam Taylor, The Independent (UK), 19 Nov. 2019

Did You Know?
Idiopathic joins the combining form idio- (from Greek idios, meaning "one's own" or "private") with -pathic, a form that suggests the effects of disease.
The combining form idio- is typically found in technical terms.
Examples include idiographic, meaning "relating to or dealing with something concrete, individual, or unique"; idiolect, meaning "the language or speech pattern of one individual at a particular period of life"; and idiotype, meaning "the molecular structure and conformation of an antibody that confers its antigenic specificity."
A more common idio- word is idiosyncrasy, which most commonly refers to an unusual way in which a person behaves or thinks, or to an unusual part or feature of something.

Doyen

 WORD OF THE DAY

doyen / noun / DOY-un

Definition
1a: the senior member of a body or group
1b: a person considered to be knowledgeable or uniquely skilled as a result of long experience in some field of endeavor
2: the oldest example of a category

Examples
We watched a TV documentary by Jacques Cousteau, the doyen of undersea explorers.

"Opening night will feature the saxophonist and spiritual-jazz doyen Pharoah Sanders, who turns 80 next month…."
— Giovanni Russonello, The New York Times, 6 Sept. 2020

Did You Know?
English picked up doyen from French in the 17th century.
The French word in turn comes, via the Old French deien, from the Late Latin word decanus, which itself comes from the Greek dekanos, meaning "chief of ten."
A doyen can be a leader of a group, such as a diplomatic corps. In this regard, the word has been used to refer to someone who is specifically or tacitly allowed to speak for that group.
More broadly, a doyen refers to a highly skilled and respected veteran of a particular field.
The feminine form of doyen is doyenne.

Vilify

 WORD OF THE DAY

vilify / verb / VIL-uh-fye

Definition
1a: to utter slanderous and abusive statements against
1b: defame
2: to lower in estimation or importance

Examples
"The gentleman next door had been vilified by Nicholas; rudely stigmatised as a dotard and an idiot; and for these attacks upon his understanding, Mrs. Nickleby was, in some sort, accountable."
— Charles Dickens, Nicholas Nickleby, 1839

"In a written statement, Oakland-based lawyer Elliot Silver said Peterson's attorneys are trying to 'vilify' Richelle Nice in the media as a 'rogue juror out on a mission' in their bid to get Peterson’s 2005 murder conviction overturned."
— Angela Ruggiero, The San Jose Mercury News, 26 Oct. 2020

Did You Know?
Vilify came to English by way of the Middle English vilifien and the Late Latin vilificare, from the Latin adjective vilis, meaning "cheap" or "vile."
It first appeared in English in the 15th century. Also debuting during that time was another verb that derives from vilis and has a similar meaning: vilipend.
When they were first used in English, both vilify and vilipend meant to regard someone or something as being of little worth or importance.
Vilipend now carries an additional meaning of "to express a low opinion of somebody," while vilify means, more specifically, to express such an opinion publicly in a way that intends to embarrass a person or ruin his or her reputation. 

Antediluvian

 WORD OF THE DAY

antediluvian /adjective / an-tih-dih-LOO-vee-un

Definition
1a: made, evolved, or developed a long time ago
1b: extremely primitive or outmoded
2: of or relating to the period before the flood described in the Bible

Examples
"But in the White Mountains grow the oldest trees on Earth, the gnarled antediluvian bristlecone pines."
— Nick Burns, The New Statesman, 16 Sept. 2020

"The Zoom sweater is, after all, the seasonal next wardrobe step after the Zoom shirt…. For some, this may seem liberating: A final declaration of independence from the suit, and proof that after months of dressing for ourselves—and our perch in the corner of the couch—we have been freed from the constrictive suiting of white collar yesteryear (and all the antediluvian fashion rules they represent)."
— Vanessa Friedman, The New York Times, 20 Aug. 2020 

Did You Know?
Before there was antediluvian, there were the Latin words ante (meaning "before") and diluvium (meaning "flood").
In the 1600s, English speakers were using antediluvian to describe conditions they believed existed before the great flood described in the biblical account of Noah and the ark.
By the early 1700s, the word had come to be used as both an adjective and a noun referring to anything or anyone prodigiously old.
Naturalist Charles Darwin used it to characterize the mighty "antediluvian trees" some prehistoric mammals might have used as a food source, and in his American Notes, Charles Dickens described an elderly lady who informed him, "It is an extremely proud and pleasant thing … to be an antediluvian."

Homage

 WORD OF THE DAY

homage / noun / AH-mij

Definition
1a: a feudal ceremony by which a man acknowledges himself the vassal of a lord
1b: the relationship between a feudal lord and his vassal
1c: an act done or payment made in meeting the obligations due from a vassal to a feudal lord
2a: expression of high regard
2b: respect
2c: something that shows respect or attests to the worth or influence of another
2d: tribute

Examples
One scene in the movie was clearly an homage to the director's mentor and idol.

"Seeing Cobb Vanth ride what looked like one of the engines from Anakin Skywalker's podracer is an entirely different thing. It's these small Easter eggs that make the show so great. 'Mandalorian' pays homage to the past without fully making it a recap of the previous shows."
— Herb Scribner, The Deseret News (Salt Lake City, Utah), 30 Oct. 2020

Did You Know?
The root of homage is homo-, the Latin root meaning "man."
In medieval times, a king's male subject could officially become the king's man (or vassal) by publicly announcing allegiance to the monarch in a formal ceremony.
In that ritual, known as homage, the subject knelt and placed his hands between those of his lord, symbolically surrendering himself and putting himself at the lord's disposal and under his jurisdiction.
A bond was thus forged between the two; the vassal's part was to revere and serve his lord, and the lord's role was to protect the vassal and his family.

Contraband

 WORD OF THE DAY

contraband / noun / KAHN-truh-band

Definition
1a: illegal or prohibited traffic in goods
1b: smuggling
2a: goods or merchandise whose importation, exportation, or possession is forbidden
2b: smuggled goods
3: a slave who during the American Civil War escaped to or was brought within the Union lines

Examples
The officers searched the car for weapons, drugs, and other contraband.

"Silk Road served as an online marketplace for drugs and other contraband, and the Justice Department has determined it generated more than $9.5 million in sales revenue before it was shut down in 2013."
— Andrew Blake, The Washington Times, 5 Nov. 2020

Did You Know?
Contraband first appeared in English in the early 1500s as a borrowing of Italian contrabbando.
This Italian word can be traced to the Medieval Latin word contrabannum, a combination of contra- ("against") and bannum ("decree").
Bannum is Germanic in origin and is related to Old High German bannan ("to command").
Bannan is also related to Middle English bannen ("to summon or to curse"), the source of the English verb ban, which now means "to prohibit" but which once also meant "to curse."

Spontaneous

 WORD OF THE DAY

spontaneous / adjective / spahn-TAY-nee-us

Definition
1: proceeding from natural feeling or native tendency without external constraint
2: arising from a momentary impulse
3a: controlled and directed internally
3b: self-acting
4a: produced without being planted or without human labor
4b: indigenous
5: developing or occurring without apparent external influence, force, cause, or treatment
6a: not apparently contrived or manipulated
6b: natural

Examples
"'You're coming to San Diego?' said Courtney excitedly. 'I am. I've decided to be spontaneous for once.' She paused. 'Which means that the visit is on short notice. Sorry about that.'"
— Douglas E. Richards, The Cure, 2013

"The key, Strassman says, is to give employees opportunities to spend unstructured work time together. Such moments can reduce social isolation and increase spontaneous collaboration and creativity—while not adding more meetings to already-full calendars."
— Barbara Z. Larson, Harvard Business Review, 27 Oct. 2020

Did You Know?

When English philosopher Thomas Hobbes penned his 1656 The Questions Concerning Liberty, Necessity, and Chance he included the following: "all voluntary actions … are called also spontaneous, and said to be done by man's own accord."
Hobbes was writing in English, but he knew Latin perfectly well too, including the source of spontaneous; the word comes, via Late Latin spontaneus, from the Latin sponte, meaning "of one's free will, voluntarily."
In modern use, the word spontaneous is frequently heard in more mundane settings, where it often describes what is done or said without a lot of thought or planning.

Rescind

 WORD OF THE DAY

rescind / verb / rih-SIND

Definition    
1a: to take away     
1b: remove
2a: take back, cancel
2b: to abrogate (a contract) and restore the parties to the positions they would have occupied had there been no contract
3: to make void by action of the enacting authority or a superior authority : repeal

Examples
"As part of that Phase I work, the board rescinded an earlier agreement to buy the old bus station at 221 W. Fourth Ave. That $109,000 will be used instead to help pay for the infrastructure work."
— Byron Tate, The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, 30, Oct. 2020

"After seeing the projections announced on television, Gore called Bush to concede the election. But by 3:17 a.m. Eastern, the Florida secretary of state's website showed Bush's lead shrinking to 565 votes. Gore called again to rescind his concession."
— Brittny Mejia, The Los Angeles Times, 2 Nov. 2020

Did You Know?
Rescind and the lesser-known words exscind and prescind all come from the Latin verb scindere, which means "to cut" or "to split." |
Rescind was adapted from its Latin predecessor rescindere in the 16th century, and prescind (from praescindere) and exscind (from exscindere) followed in the next century.
Exscind means "to cut off" or "to excise," and prescind means "to withdraw one's attention," but of the three borrowings, only rescind established itself as a common English term.
Today, rescind is most often heard in contexts having to do with someone rescinding a contract or an offer, or with a legislative body rescinding a law.

Paucity

WORD OF THE DAY

paucity / noun / PAW-suh-tee

Definition
1a: smallness of number 
1b: fewness
2a: smallness of quantity 
2b: dearth

Examples
The manager overheard two customers complaining about the paucity of stylish designs in the store.

"But dire wolves, which were about 25 percent heavier than gray wolves, never flourished in Asia, Dr. Ni and his collaborators suggested, based on the paucity of fossils found there (this is the first)." 
— Katherine Kornei, The New York Times, 15 Oct. 2020

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

Lucrative

 WORD OF THE DAY

lucrative / adjective / LOO-kruh-tiv

Definition
1: producing wealth
2: profitable

Examples
The author parlayed the success of her books into a lucrative second career as a public speaker.   

"Over time, [Halloween] evolved into lucrative months-long festivals.… Typically, Halloween events take place after traditional park hours and require a separate ticket purchase. So the parks are making money from both the guests that visit during the day and those that arrive when the sun goes down."
— Sarah Whitten, CNBC.com, 11 Oct. 2020

Did You Know?
Paying, gainful, remunerative, and lucrative share the meaning of bringing in a return of money, but each term casts a different light on how much green you take in.
Paying is the word for jobs that yield the smallest potatoes—your first paying job probably provided satisfactory compensation, but you weren't going to get rich by it.
Gainful employment might offer a bit more cash, and gainful certainly suggests that an individual is motivated by a desire for gain.
Remunerative implies that a job provides more than the usual rewards, but a lucrative position is the one you want—those are the kind that go beyond your initial hopes or expectations.

Distend

 WORD OF THE DAY

distend / verb / dih-STEND

Definition
1: extend
2a: to enlarge, expand, or stretch out (as from internal pressure)
2b: swell

Examples
"At the Aurora … the finest performers in Josh Costello’s cast … add still further pleasure to the avalanche of wit. They make it sing—and croak and hiss and squeal, thunder and bark and gurgle. They distend syllables. They ride the waves of diphthongs. They scale octaves in a breath and then find a comedic thump of a note to land on. It’s pitch as punch line."
— Lily Janiak, The San Francisco Chronicle, 23 Apr. 2019

"Stomach bloating is when the tummy becomes distended, causing it to feel uncomfortable. It often occurs after eating a big meal. But for some, bloating is more than an occasional inconvenience."
— Katrina Turrill, The Sunday Express (UK), 21 Apr. 2019

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

Brainiac

 WORD OF THE DAY

brainiac / noun / BRAY-nee-ak

Definition
: a very intelligent person

Examples
"As the Kendall Square Association advocates for transportation fixes, the Cambridge group likes to say that you can't find the cure for cancer while sitting in traffic. You can't. But all this congestion might just spur you, or some other brainiac, to find a cure for traffic."
— John Chesto, The Boston Globe, 31 Jan. 2020

"Our goal is to broaden the appeal of STEM tourism making it accessible to all—as in, you don't have to be a brainiac to enjoy it."
— Michael Novakovich, quoted in The Tri-City Herald (Kennewick, Washington), 26 Dec. 2019

Did You Know?
As Superman fans know, Brainiac was the super intelligent villain in the Action Comics series and its spin-offs.
His name is a portmanteau of brain and maniac. (For those who believe it comes from a 1950s "computer kit," fly here, but come back.)
You don't need x-ray vision to see the connection here—etymologists think Superman's brainy adversary is the likely inspiration for the common noun brainiac.
The term was not coined right away though. The comic-book series was launched in 1938 and the character Brainiac debuted in 1956, but current evidence doesn't show general use of brainiac to refer to a super intelligent person until the 1970s.

Tyro

 WORD OF THE DAY

tyro / noun / TYE-roh

Definition
1: a beginner in learning
2: novice

Examples
The ranch has one riding trail for tyros and several more challenging options for experienced riders.

"In 'Zucked,' Roger McNamee winces at the memory of his introduction to Mark Zuckerberg. It was 2006 and he played the grizzled industry elder to Zuckerberg's tyro."
— Stephen Phillips, The San Francisco Chronicle, 10 Feb. 2019

Did You Know?
The word tyro is hardly a newcomer to Western language.
It comes from the Latin tiro, which means "young soldier," "new recruit," or more generally, "novice."
The word was sometimes spelled tyro as early as Medieval Latin, and can be spelled tyro or tiro in English (though tyro is the more common American spelling).
Use of tyro in English has never been restricted to the original "young soldier" meaning of the Latin term.
Writers in the 17th and 18th centuries wrote of tyros in various fields and occupations, and Herman Melville used tyro to refer to men new to whaling and life at sea.
The word also has a long history of being used attributively—that is, directly before another noun—in phrases like "tyro reporter" and "tyro actors."

Equity

 WORD OF THE DAY

equity / noun / EK-wuh-tee

Definition
1a: justice according to natural law or right
1b: freedom from bias or favoritism
1c: something that is equitable
2a: the money value of a property or of an interest in a property in excess of claims or liens against it
2b: the common stock of a corporation
2c: a risk interest or ownership right in property
2d: a right, claim, or interest existing or valid in equity

Examples
"Diversity, equity and inclusion education is critical to developing effective leadership and building a workforce with equitable opportunities to contribute, succeed and grow."
— Max Stier, Ourpublicservice.org, 20 Nov. 2020

"Local officials in California can demonstrate and encourage civility in the local governing culture in many ways.... Think about how social justice, engagement and equity can be integrated into your leadership principles."
— Erica L. Manuel, CalMatters, 16 Nov. 2020

Did You Know?
Equity usually appears in courts of law as a term related to justice or proportional fairness, or in financial offices to property or one's share of a company.
The derivative root of the noun, which gained stability in the English language during the 1300s, is Latin aequus, meaning "even," "fair," or "equal"; however, to be fair, it was introduced to English by the French, whose adaptation of the Latin was equité.
The French word has clear legal connotations; it means "justice" or "rightness," and those meanings, plus a splash of "fairness," carried over to the English word equity.
Noah Webster, himself a lawyer, notes the legal term equity of redemption in his 1828 dictionary defining it as "the advantage, allowed to a mortgager, of a reasonable time to redeem lands mortgaged, when the estate is of greater value than the sum for which it was mortgaged."
This use led to the modern financial meanings of equity: "the value of a piece of property after any debts that remain to be paid are subtracted" and "a share in a company or of a company's stock."

Ambient

 WORD OF THE DAY

ambient / adjective / AM-bee-unt

Definition
1a: existing or present on all sides
1b: encompassing
2 (of electronic music): quiet and relaxing with melodies that repeat many times

Examples
"These sophisticated spaces are stocked with elements to lure homeowners outdoors: water and fire features; … ambient lighting to set the mood."
— Rachel Hutton, The Star Tribune (Minneapolis, Minnesota), 21 Oct. 2020

"The fear might go away after a couple of scenes, or even right after a first entrance. 'Sort of like in movies when all ambient noise fades away and everything goes out of focus but the path ahead,' says Leontyne Mbele-Mbong."
— Lily Janiak, The San Francisco Chronicle, 22 Oct. 2020

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

Ulterior

WORD OF THE DAY

ulterior / adjective / ul-TEER-ee-er

Definition

1: going beyond what is openly said or shown and especially what is proper

2a: further, future

2b: more distant

2c: situated on the farther side

Examples

"People need someone in office that they can trust, that they know has no ulterior motives or is beholden to any entities other than the city." 

— Mark Rockeymoore, quoted in The San Marcos (Texas) Daily Record, 20 Oct. 2020

"Dreyer describes Seuss's personal collection of paintings and sculptures as 'secret art.' Geisel literally kept them in the closet … and his widow, Audrey Geisel, has never sold an original Seuss. She authorized high-quality lithograph prints so the public can see the ulterior side of her late husband." 

— The Alexandria (Virginia) Times, 6 Dec. 2011

Did You Know?

Although now usually hitched to the front of the noun motive to refer to a hidden need or desire that inspires action, ulterior began its career as an adjective in the 17th century describing something occurring at a subsequent time, such as "ulterior measures" taken after a lawful request. 

It then started to be used to mean both "more distant" (literally and figuratively) and "situated on the farther side." 

The "hidden" sense, which is most familiar today, followed after those, with the word modifying nouns like purpose, design, and consequence. 

Ulterior comes directly from the Latin word for "farther" or "further," itself assumed to be from ulter, meaning "situated beyond."

 

Posthumous

WORD OF THE DAY

posthumous / adjective / PAHSS-chuh-muss

Definition
1: born after the death of the father
2: published after the death of the author
3: following or occurring after death

Examples
Published eleven years following his death in 1969, John Kennedy Toole's novel A Confederacy of Dunces earned the author posthumous fame as well as the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.

"Sharon Jones may no longer be with us, but her legacy continues to endure in the form of posthumous releases. Daptone Records released a new Dusty Springfield cover from the upcoming Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings album, Just Dropped In To See What Condition My Rendition Was In."
— Emily Tan, Spin, 7 Oct. 2020

Did You Know?
The etymology of the word posthumous tells a complex story. In Latin, posterus is an adjective meaning "coming after" (from post, meaning "after").
The comparative form of posterus is posterior, and its superlative form is postumus, which means, among other things, "last."
Postumus had specific application in referring to the last of a man's children, which in some cases meant those born after he had died.
Latin speakers incorrectly identified the -umus in this word with humus, meaning "dirt" or "earth" (suggesting the ground in which the unfortunate father now lay).

The Latin spelling became posthumus, as if the word were formed from post and humus, and both the "h" and the suggestion of "after burial" or "after death" carried over into English 

Mogul

WORD OF THE DAY

mogul / noun / MOH-gul

Definition
1a (capitalized Mogul): an Indian Muslim of or descended from one of several conquering groups of Mongol, Turkish, and Persian origin
1b: Great Mogul
2a: a great personage
2b: magnate

Examples
"The philanthropic foundation created by the hedge fund mogul Ray Dalio is donating $50 million to NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital to address health social inequalities."
— The New York Times, 14 Oct. 2020

"The Atlanta rap mogul is walking around Super Sound Studios, the recording haven he purchased last year, talking into the heel of his phone."
— Melissa Ruggieri, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, 25 Sept. 2020

Did You Know?
Started by Babur, a descendant of Genghis Khan, the Muslim Mogul dynasty ruled much of India from the early 16th century to the mid-18th century.
The Moguls (whose name is also spelled Moghul or Mughal) were known for their talented and powerful rulers (called "Great Moguls"), so it's no surprise that in English the word mogul came to denote a powerful person, as in today's familiar references to "media moguls."
Skiers might wonder if such power moguls have anything to do with the name they use for a bump in a ski run, but that hilly homonym has nothing to do with Asian Mogul dynasties.
We picked up the skier's mogul from German dialect, from a word that is probably related to the Viennese mugl, meaning "small hill."

 

Vaunted

 WORD OF THE DAY

vaunted / adjective / VAWN-tud

Definition
: highly or widely praised or boasted about

Examples
The team was able to overcome their opponents' vaunted defense and achieve an upset victory.

"She's been known to include works by vaunted artists in her videos, and with her husband Jay-Z, she's built up an important collection of Black art."
— Alex Greenberger, Art News, 3 Aug. 2020

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

Emigrate

 WORD OF THE DAY

emigrate / verb / EM-uh-grayt

Definition
: to leave one's place of residence or country to live elsewhere

Examples
"… graduates and skilled technical workers are also emigrating, usually with a plan to save up for a few years and then return."
— The Economist, 5 Nov. 2013

"Vuong's parents emigrated by boat from Vietnam five years earlier and settled in Modesto."
— Marijke Rowland, The Modesto (California) Bee, 10 Oct. 2020

Did You Know?
Migrate, emigrate, and immigrate are all about being on the move.
The source of all three is the Latin word migrare, which means "to move from one place to another." Emigrate and immigrate sound alike, and both involve leaving one location and arriving in another, but they are applied differently:
emigrate stresses leaving the original place, while immigrate focuses on arriving in the new one.
You won't have trouble keeping them straight if you remember that the prefix e- means "away," as in eject, and the prefix im- or in- means "into," as in inject.

Cohesive

 WORD OF THE DAY

cohesive / adjective / koh-HEE-siv

Definition
1: exhibiting or producing cohesion
2: causing parts or members to unify or stick together

Examples
"His hair was slicked artfully back from his brow in one cohesive wave."
— Kate Christensen, In the Drink, 1999

"Our closely-knit sales team had been doing great since we started working from home back in March and so far had been able to maintain performance goals. Part of what made the team cohesive before the pandemic was that we regularly engaged in fun social activities … where we could informally talk business."
— Eva Del Rio, The Gainesville (Florida) Sun, 24 Aug. 2020

Did You Know?
Cohesive describes something that sticks together literally or figuratively.
To get into the stickiness of the matter, look at the word's etymology: cohesive ultimately derives from Latin haerere, meaning "to stick."
Other descendants of haerere in English include:
adhere (literally meaning "to stick")
adhesive (a word for a substance for sticking things together)
inhere (meaning "to belong by nature or habit")
hesitate (which implies remaining stuck in place before taking action)

Haerere also teamed up with the prefix co- to form cohaerere, an ancestor of cohesive
cohesion ("a sticking together")
cohere ("to stick together")
and coherent ("able to stick together" or "logically consistent").

Bugbear

 WORD OF THE DAY

bugbear / noun / BUG-bair

Definition
1: an imaginary goblin or specter used to excite fear
2a: an object or source of dread
2b: a continuing source of irritation
2c: problem

Examples
"Taxation without representation was famously a bugbear of American colonists in the 18th century."
— The Economist, 2 July 2020

"Why? Why? What a beast of a word that is—the detective's bugbear. I thought I had it, until you said Great Scott! I'll tell you why."
— P. G. Wodehouse, Something New, 1915

Did You Know?
Bugbear sounds like some kind of grotesque hybrid creature from fable or folklore, and that very well may be what the word's creator was trying to evoke.
When the word entered English in the 16th century, it referred to any kind of creature made up to frighten someone; in 1592, Thomas Nashe wrote of "Meere bugge-beares to scare boyes."
The word's first element refers not to the familiar creatures one encounters in the garden, but to a different bug entirely: since the 15th century, bug (from Middle English bugge, meaning "hobgoblin"—that is, a mischievous goblin) has referred to a ghost or goblin.
The bear in bugbear is the one still feared today, and suggests what such made-up creatures were perhaps described as resembling.

Fulvous

 WORD OF THE DAY

fulvous / adjective /  FULL-vus

Definition

1: of a dull brownish yellow 

2: tawny

Examples

The dog had an unusual coat of fulvous fur with black and white splotches.

"I planned to visit the Pine Barrens to marvel at the fulvous leaves rioting to autumnal frenzy." 

— Denis Hamill, The Independent (East Hampton, New York), 15 Nov. 2017

Did You Know?

Fulvous has never been a common word. You are most likely to encounter it in texts from the 19th century—unless, that is, you care about ducks. 

In that case, you might know about a kind of whistling-duck called the fulvous tree duck, which is a brownish duck with long legs and a long neck and an unusual world distribution. 

It lives in isolated populations in North America, South America, India, and Africa—remarkably without geographic variation. 

But back to fulvous: it shares a meaning with its direct ancestor, the Latin word fulvus, and fulvus itself is believed to possibly share an ancestor with flavus, Latin for "yellow."