Truculent

 WORD OF THE DAY

truculent / adjective / TRUCK-yuh-lunt

Definition
1a: aggressively self-assertive
1b: belligerent
2a: scathingly harsh
2b: vitriolic
3a: feeling or displaying ferocity
3b: cruel, savage
4: deadly, destructive

Examples
Warren's truculent demeanor made him unpleasant to work with, particularly as deadlines approached.

"We encounter the novel not as a relic, encrusted with renown and analysis, much revered and much handled, but in all its freshness and truculent refusal of fiction's tropes."
— Parul Sehgal, The New York Times, 16 June 2020

Did You Know?|
Truculent derives from truculentus, a form of the Latin adjective trux, meaning "savage."
It has been used in English since the 16th century to describe people or things that are cruel and ferocious, such as tyrannical leaders, and has also come to mean "deadly or destructive" (as in "a truculent disease").
In current use, however, it has lost much of its etymological fierceness. It now frequently serves to describe speech or writing that is notably harsh (as in "truculent criticism") or a person who is notably self-assertive and surly ("a truculent schoolboy").
Some usage commentators have criticized these extended uses because they do not match the savagery of the word's original sense, but they are well-established and perfectly standard.

Rue

 WORD OF THE DAY

rue / verb / ROO

Definition
: to feel penitence, remorse, or regret for

Examples
"He rued his small feet, which turned inwards ever so slightly. When standing still, he always had to remember to turn his feet out, to avoid looking pigeon-toed."
— Natasha Solomons, Mr. Rosenblum Dreams in English, 2010

"Yes, I rue the day when I am not allowed to squeeze my avocados to see if they are ripe. I don't want a grocery clerk selecting my corn on the cob. And I certainly want to be able to point toward that third piece of filet mignon in the second row because it is marbled just right."
— Jay Heater, The East County Observer (Bradenton, Florida), 21 May 2020

Did You Know?
If you remember your high school French, or if you've ever strolled down the Rue de Rivoli in Paris, you may have the notion that the English word rue is somehow connected to the French word for "street."
In actuality, the French and English words are not related at all. The English rue is originally from the Old English word hrēow, meaning "sorrow."
Used as both a noun and, more frequently, a verb, rue is very old, dating back to before the 12th century.

Sophomoric

 WORD OF THE DAY

sophomoric / adjective / sahf-MOR-ik

Definition
1: conceited and overconfident of knowledge but poorly informed and immature
2: lacking in maturity, taste, or judgment

Examples
Judd's behavior at the party was sophomoric, but I've seen a more mature side to him in other settings.

"Good cause notwithstanding, eager Brad-and-Jen fans were laser-focused on Pitt's reaction to one of Aniston's lines. 'Hi, Brad,' Aniston said to her former spouse while in character. 'You know how cute I always thought you were.' … Not to be too sophomoric, but let's admit it ... he totally blushed."
— Emma Specter, Vogue, 18 Sept. 2020

Did You Know?
Sophomores get a bad rap. A lot of people seem to think they're foolish (no matter what they do), when they themselves know they're pretty wise.
The history of the words sophomore and sophomoric (which developed from sophomore) proves that it has always been tough to be a sophomore.
Those words probably come from a combination of the Greek terms sophos (which means "wise") and mōros (which means "foolish").
But sophomores can take comfort in the fact that some very impressive words, including philosopher and sophisticated, are also related to sophos.

Dexterous

 WORD OF THE DAY

dexterous / adjective / DEK-strus

Definition
1a: mentally adroit and skillful
1b: clever
2a: done with mental or physical skill, quickness, or grace
2b: done with dexterity
2c: artful
3: skillful and competent with the hands

Examples
As a shortstop, Alex is a dexterous fielder who is adept at catching any ground ball or line drive hit at him.

"And every single one of those weaves is done by hand. No loom is used—only dexterous fingers, sharp eyes and Zen-like concentration."
— Roff Smith, The New York Times, 22 July 2020

Did You Know?
Dexterous comes from the Latin word dexter, meaning "on the right side."
Since most people are right-handed, and therefore do things more easily with their right hand, dexter developed the sense of "skillful."
English speakers crafted dexterous from dexter and have been using the resulting adjective for anyone who is skillful—in either a physical or mental capacity—since at least the early 1600s.
The adjective ambidextrous, which combines dexter with the Latin prefix ambi-, meaning "both," describes one who is able to use both hands in an equally skillful way.

 

Repine

WORD OF THE DAY

repine / verb / rih-PYNE

Definition
1a: to feel or express dejection or discontent
1b: complain
2: to long for something

Examples
"All his journeys were ruggedly performed; for he was always steadfast in a purpose of saving money for Emily's sake, when she should be found. In all this long pursuit, I never heard him repine; I never heard him say he was fatigued, or out of heart."
— Charles Dickens, David Copperfield, 1850

"For about half an hour I felt quite low in spirits because of Charley Heywood's unannounced departure, but I am not one to repine over matters that can't be helped."
— Dee Brown, Conspiracy of Knaves, 1987

Did You Know?
In longing, one can "repine over" something ("repining over her lost past"), or one can "pine for" something.
The two words, used thus, mean close to the same thing, but not exactly. Pining refers to intense longing for what one once knew.
Repine adds an element of discontent to any longing—an element carried over from its sense "to feel or express dejection or discontent," which has been in use since the 16th century.
Washington Irving used the earlier sense in his 1820 work The Sketch Book: "Through the long and weary day he repines at his unhappy lot."
Pine and repine are from Old English pīnian ("to suffer") and probably ultimately from Latin poena ("punishment").
Poena also gave us pain.

Guttersnipe

 WORD OF THE DAY

guttersnipe / noun / GUTT-er-snype

Definition
1: a young vagabond : an outcast boy or girl in the streets of a city
2: a person of the lowest moral or economic station

Examples
"He had blackmailed another ten dollars out of the urchin, also forcing the waif to watch the wagon while he spent the afternoon at Leow's State watching a film about drag-racing teenagers. The guttersnipe was definitely a discovery…."
— John Kennedy Toole, A Confederacy of Dunces, 1980

"Uneducated flower girl Eliza Doolittle, on the other hand, transforms from what Higgins calls a 'guttersnipe' into a proper lady." 
— Rohan Preston, The Star Tribune (Minneapolis, Minnesota), 5 Mar. 2020

Did You Know?

"Unfurl yourselves under my banner, noble savages, illustrious guttersnipes," wrote Mark Twain sometime around 1869.
Twain was among the first writers to use guttersnipe for a young hoodlum or street urchin. In doing so, he was following a trend among writers of the time to associate gutter (a low area at the side of a road) with a low station in life.
Other writers in the late 19th century used guttersnipe more literally as a name for certain kinds of snipes, or birds with long thin beaks that live in wet areas.
Gutter-bird was another term that was used for both birds and disreputable persons. And even snipe itself has a history as a term of opprobrium; it was used as such during William Shakespeare's day.

Adduce

 WORD OF THE DAY

adduce / verb / uh-DOOSS

Definition
: to offer as example, reason, or proof in discussion or analysis

Examples
"She was tranquil, yet her tranquility was evidently constrained; and as her confusion had before been adduced as a proof of her guilt, she worked up her mind to an appearance of courage."
— Mary Shelley, Frankenstein, 1818

"His story proper begins in 1833, with pre-war productions of Othello, but earlier examples could easily have been adduced that would only have strengthened his case. On 3 April, 1760, for example, a newspaper in Annapolis, Maryland, advertised a production of Othello to be staged the following week….
— Sarah Churchwell, The New Statesman, 11 Mar. 2020

Did You Know?
We won't lead you astray over the history of adduce; it is one of a plethora of familiar words that trace to the Latin root dūcere, which means "to lead."
Perhaps we can induce you to deduce a few other dūcere offspring if we offer a few hints about them. One is a synonym of kidnap, one's a title for a British royal, and one's another word for decrease.
There are your leads; here are the answers. They are abduct, duke, and reduce, respectively.
There are also many others, including induce, which means "to persuade" or "to bring about."

Dorsal

 WORD OF THE DAY

dorsal / adjective / DOR-sul

Definition
1: relating to or situated near or on the back especially of an animal or of one of its parts
2a: situated out of or directed away from the axis
2b: abaxial

Examples
I might have identified the bird as a yellow-throated vireo if I'd had more than a dorsal view.

"In later films, the bony dorsal plates that run along [Godzilla's] spine and tail glow ominously as he unleashes a concentrated blast of atomic breath from his jaws, blasting everything it touches."
— Michael Abatemarco, The Santa Fe New Mexican, 4 Sept. 2020

Did You Know?
The most famous use of dorsal is with fin, whether it conjures the ominous dorsal fin of sharks or the benign, even benevolent, image of porpoises and dolphins.
Less well-known is the botanical sense of dorsal, meaning "facing away from the axis or stem" (thus the underside of a leaf can be the dorsal side), or the linguistic sense referring to articulations made with the back part of the tongue (\k\ and \g\, for example).
Dorsal can be used of non-living things too (in particular, the backs of airplanes), as can its opposite, ventral, which means "relating to the belly."
Dorsal descends from Latin dorsum ("back"), which also gave us dossier (via French, for a bundle of documents labeled on the back) and reredos ("an ornamental screen or partition wall behind an altar").

 

Visage

WORD OF THE DAY

visage / noun / VIZ-ij

Definition
1: the face, countenance, or appearance of a person or sometimes an animal
2: aspect, appearance

Examples
"But aside from the visage of Grumpy Cat—who may not have been grumpy at all—feline faces don't tell us much about how cats feel."
— Karin Brulliard, The Washington Post, 30 Nov. 2019

"Looking for his own visage in the glass, he caught his shimmering outline and checked that his tie was right…."
— Peter Mountford, The Dismal Science, 2014

Did You Know?
The word face may be a pretty generic word, but it has several high-flown synonyms.
Physiognomy, for instance, refers to facial features thought to reveal qualities of temperament or character.
"I thought I could detect in his physiognomy a mind owning better qualities than his father ever possessed," Emily Brontë writes in Wuthering Heights.
Countenance is often used to refer to the face as an indication of mood or emotion, as Bram Stoker types in Dracula: "Mina struggled hard to keep her brave countenance."
Visage can refer to the face of a person or an animal, and it can also refer to the appearance of nonliving things, as in "the dirty visage of the old abandoned factory."

Quotidian

 WORD OF THE DAY

quotidian / adjective / kwoh-TID-ee-un

Definition
1: occurring every day
2a: belonging to each day
2b: everyday
2c: commonplace, ordinary

Examples
"Disability technology can be so quotidian that non-disabled users don't even notice. GPS and spell-check, so ubiquitous for so many people, are technologies that assist me with dyslexia."
— David M. Perry, The New York Times, 20 July 2020

"Normally an outgoing person, I was accustomed to frequent study sessions, movie nights and other quotidian experiences with my friends…."
— Elaine Godwin, The Flat Hat (The College of William and Mary), 11 Aug. 2020

Did You Know?
In William Shakespeare's play As You Like It, the character Rosalind observes that Orlando, who has been running about in the woods carving her name on trees and hanging love poems on branches, "seems to have the quotidian of love upon him."
The Bard's use doesn't make it clear that quotidian derives from a Latin word that means "every day." But as odd as it may seem, his use of quotidian is just a short semantic step away from the "daily" adjective sense. Some fevers occur intermittently—sometimes daily.
The phrase "quotidian fever" and the noun quotidian have long been used for such recurring maladies. Poor Orlando is simply afflicted with such a "fever" of love.

Futile

 WORD OF THE DAY

futile / adjective / FYOO-tul  

Definition
1a: serving no useful purpose
1b: completely ineffective
2a: occupied with trifles
2b: frivolous

Examples
"Austin Rivers … played a role in the fourth-quarter comeback attempt that proved futile."
— Reuters, 11 Sept. 2020

"… anyone who's ever traded in the familiar role of wedding guest for the alien role of wedding focal point will know how futile an effort it is to remember events clearly. At this point, the night lives on for me through the colors in my brain and the considerably more reliable memories in the photographs."
— Daniel Riley, GQ, 22 July 2020

Did You Know?
Futile broke into 16th-century English as a Latinate borrowing from Middle French. The Latin derivative, fūtilis, was used to describe things that are brittle or fragile and, by extension, things serving no purpose or being pointless.
These meanings survive in the English futile, which denotes ineffectiveness or frivolousness. In 1827, English author Robert Southey found use for the word by blending it into utilitarian to form futilitarian, a word that is used for anyone who believes that human striving is futile—that is, ineffective and/or frivolous.

Kiln

 WORD OF THE DAY

kiln / noun / KILN

Definition
: an oven, furnace, or heated enclosure used for processing a substance by burning, firing, or drying

Examples
The art studio has purchased a kiln and now offers courses in ceramics.

"He has a kiln in his garage, and each bust is given a finish that makes it appear to be made of bronze." 
— Matt Soergel, The (Jacksonville) Florida Times-Union, 1 Sept. 2020

Did You Know?
The word kiln was kindled in Old English as a bundle of c-y-l-n.
Unlike many words that descend from Old English, however, kiln is not ultimately Germanic in origin but was borrowed from Latin culina, meaning "kitchen," an ancestor of the English word culinary, which has been a menu option in English since the 17th century.
An ingredient in culina is coquere, meaning "to cook" in Latin.

Benefic

 WORD OF THE DAY

benefic / adjective / buh-NEF-ik

Definition
1: producing good or helpful results or effects
2: beneficent

Examples
"A broad range of biological effects has been attributed to aromatic plants and their components…. There are many reports proving the benefic effects against depression, anxiety, epilepsy, stroke, and Alzheimer's disease (AD) and Parkinson's disease (PD)."
— Sandra Gonçalves et al., in Oxidative Stress and Dietary Antioxidants in Neurological Diseases, 2020

"But you may want to keep an eye on your texts, emails, and DMs on Monday, November 13, darling Virgo. When benefic planets Venus and Jupiter team up in your third house of communication, positive tidings are absolutely on the horizon!"
– Aliza Kelly Faragher, Allure, 13 Nov. 2017

Did You Know?
Benefic comes from Latin beneficus, which in turn comes from bene ("well") and facere ("to do").
The word was originally used by astrologers to refer to celestial bodies believed to have a favorable influence, and it's still used in astrological contexts.
Benefic, beneficial, and beneficent are all synonyms, but there are shades of difference.
Beneficial usually applies to things that promote well-being (as in "a beneficial dietary plan"), or that provide some benefit or advantage ("advice that proved financially beneficial").
Beneficent means doing or effecting good (as in "a beneficent influence"), but in particular it refers to the performance of acts of kindness or charity ("a beneficent organization").
Benefic, the rarest of the three, tends to be a bit high-flown, and it's mostly used to describe a favorable power or force. 

Usurp

 WORD OF THE DAY

usurp / verb / yoo-SERP

Definition
1a: to seize and hold (office, place, functions, powers, etc.) in possession by force or without right
1b: to take or make use of without right
2a: to take the place of by or as if by force
2b: supplant

Examples
"The directors of seven European film festivals shared the stage at the opening of the 77th Venice film festival to help kick-start an industry that they said was in danger of being usurped by streaming sites such as Netflix because of the Covid-19 pandemic."
— Lanre Bakare, The Guardian (London), 2 Sept. 2020

"More important, he has fundamentally changed the way that professional tennis is played.… Djokovic introduced a defensive style of movement that is copied widely by the younger generation of players who actively seek to usurp him."
— Max Gendler, The New York Times, 31 Aug. 2020

Did You Know?
Usurp was borrowed into English in the 14th century from the Anglo-French word usorper, which in turn derives from the Latin verb usurpare, meaning "to take possession of without a legal claim."
Usurpare itself was formed by combining usu (a form of usus, meaning "use") and rapere ("to seize").
Other descendants of rapere in English include rapacious ("given to seizing or extorting what is coveted"), rapine ("the seizing and carrying away of things by force"), rapt (the earliest sense of which is "lifted up and carried away"), and ravish (one meaning of which is "to seize and take away by violence").

 

Mythomania

 WORD OF THE DAY

mythomania / noun / mith-uh-MAY-nee-uh

Definition
: an excessive or abnormal propensity for lying and exaggerating

Examples
The idea of trust is an important theme in the book; the reader is never sure of the extent of the protagonist's mythomania.

"It is hard to differentiate between habitual lying and mythomania because some people engage in telling white lies to avoid hurting others' feelings. The pathological liar, by contrast, cannot help lying, even when the lie causes harm."
— Gloria Wall, Journal Review (Crawfordsville, Indiana), 27 Apr. 2020

Did You Know?
We wouldn't lie to you about the history of mythomania. It comes, via the French mythomanie, from two ancient roots: the Greek mŷthos (meaning "myth") and the Late Latin mania (meaning "insanity marked by uncontrolled emotion or excitement").
One myth about mythomania is that it's a very old word; actually, the earliest known uses of the term date only from the beginning of the 20th century. It was predated by a related word, mythomaniac, which appeared around the middle of the 19th century.
Mythomaniac referred to someone who was obsessed with or passionate about myths before it was applied to individuals affected with or exhibiting mythomania.

Leitmotif

WORD OF THE DAY

leitmotif / noun /  LYTE-moh-teef

Definition

1: a melodic phrase or figure that accompanies the reappearance of an idea, person, or situation in a music drama

2: a dominant recurring theme

Examples

The overcoming of obstacles and a love of theater are the two leitmotifs of her autobiography.

"The panther has been Cartier's leitmotif for more than a century. The first time the Paris-based jewelry company … alluded to the graceful jungle cat was in 1914, when the house created a women's platinum wristwatch with a case that resembled an abstracted version of the elegant animal's spots, in onyx and diamonds." 

— Nancy Hass, The New York Times, 26 Aug. 2020

Did You Know?

The English word leitmotif (or leitmotiv, as it is also spelled) comes from the German Leitmotiv, meaning "leading motive," and is formed from the verb leiten ("to lead") and the noun Motiv ("motive"). 

In its original sense, the word applies to opera music; it was first used by writers interpreting the works of composer Richard Wagner, who was famous for associating a melody with a character or important dramatic element. 

Leitmotif is still commonly used with reference to music and musical drama but it is now also used more broadly to refer to any recurring theme in the arts or in everyday life.

Collogue

WORD OF THE DAY

collogue / verb / kuh-LOHG

Definition
1 (dialect): intrigue, conspire
2a: to talk privately
2b: confer

Examples
"And how long have you been so thick with Dunsey that you must collogue with him to embezzle my money?"
— George Eliot, Silas Marner, 1861

"So it's a time to collogue and to converse, a time to find a way through this emergency and to ensure Irish America emerges stronger and better—while keeping the bridge to Ireland open."
— Máirtín Ó Muilleoir, The Irish Echo, 15 July 2020

Did You Know?
Collogue has been with us since the 17th century, but beyond that little is known about its origin.
In his 1755 dictionary, Samuel Johnson defined collogue as "to wheedle, to flatter; to please with kind words."
The "intrigue or conspire" meaning of collogue was also common in Johnson's day; the fact that Johnson missed it suggests that the meaning may have been used primarily in a dialect unfamiliar to him.
Evidence of the "confer" sense of the word appears in the 19th century. Walter Scott used it in an 1811 letter, writing "We shall meet and collogue upon it." Today, the word is mostly used by the Irish.

 

Pecuniary

 WORD OF THE DAY

pecuniary / adjective / pih-KYOO-nee-air-ee

Definition

1: consisting of or measured in money

2: of or relating to money

Examples

"The theft from interstate or foreign shipment carries a maximum potential penalty of 10 years in prison and is punishable by a fine of $250,000 or twice the amount of the pecuniary gain or loss from the offense." 

— The U.S. Attorney's Office, District of New Jersey, press release, 27 July 2020

"In a commercial environment, news organizations have to balance pecuniary concerns with their duties as journalists." 

— Ethan Epstein, The Washington Times, 5 Nov. 2019

Did You Know?

Pecuniary first appeared in English in the early 16th century and comes from the Latin word pecunia, which means "money." Both this root and Latin peculium, which means "private property," are related to the Latin noun for cattle, pecus. 

Among Latin speakers (as among many other populations, past and present) cattle were viewed as a trading commodity, and property was often valued in terms of cattle. 

Pecunia has also given us impecunious, a word meaning "having little or no money," while peculium gave us peculate, a synonym for embezzle. 

In peculium you might also recognize the word peculiar, which originally meant "characteristic of only one" or "distinctive" before acquiring its current meaning of "strange."

Forebear

 WORD OF THE DAY

forebear / noun / FOR-bair

Definition
1: ancestor, forefather
2: precursor

 Examples
Although several of her male forebears had graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy, Tina was the first woman from her family to do so.

"Imagine what must have gone through the minds of our ancient Paleolithic forebears at such a spectacle. They had no modern technology, little information about eclipses, no foreknowledge at all of such events."
— Pete Koutoulas, The Winchester (Kentucky) Sun, 21 Aug. 2020

Did You Know?
Forebear (also spelled, less commonly, as forbear) was first used by our ancestors in the days of Middle English.
Fore- means "coming before," just as in forefather, and -bear means "one that is." This -bear is not to be confused with the -bear in the unrelated verb forbear, which comes from Old English beran, meaning "to bear or carry."
The -bear in the noun forebear is a combination of be-, from the verb be (or, more specifically, from been, an old dialect variant of be), and -ar, a form of the suffix -er, which we append to verbs to denote one that performs a specified action.
In this case the "action" is simply existing or being—in other words, -bear implies one who is a "be-er."

Appreciable

 WORD OF THE DAY

appreciable / adjective / uh-PREE-shuh-bul

Definition
: capable of being perceived or measured

Examples
"In fact, frozen water molecules detected at both poles have no appreciable order to their arrangement…."
— NASA.gov, 22 July 2020

"Nelson heard The Faerie Queen as a very long bedtime story, lasting an appreciable portion of his young life, and Shakespeare all the way through kindergarten and first grade."
— James Hynes, The Lecturer’s Tale, 2001

Did You Know?
Appreciable, like the verb appreciate, comes from the Late Latin verb appretiare ("to appraise" or "to put a price on").
It is one of several English adjectives that can be applied to something that can be detected, felt, or measured. Specifically, appreciable applies to what is highly noticeable or definitely measurable, whereas perceptible, which is often paired with barely or scarcely, applies to what can be discerned to a minimal extent.
Sensible refers to something that is clearly perceived; a sensible difference in someone's expression is easily detected.
Palpable applies to something that, if it doesn't have actual physical substance, is nevertheless quite noticeable via the senses ("a palpable chill in the air").
Tangible is used for something capable of being handled or grasped, either physically or mentally ("tangible evidence").

Pachyderm

 WORD OF THE DAY

pachyderm / noun / PAK-ih-derm

Definition
: any of various non-ruminant mammals (such as an elephant, a rhinoceros, or a hippopotamus) of a former group (Pachydermata) that have hooves or nails resembling hooves and usually thick skin, especially an elephant

Examples
"'Rhino births are significant events at the Zoo so we are thrilled to share news of Niki's pregnancy and cannot wait to welcome this new addition to our herd,' said Rachel Emory, OKC Zoo curator of pachyderms."
— The Oklahoman (Oklahoma City), 15 Feb. 2020

"The elephants, though, still needed to reach the river. They hewed close to the old route, the one imprinted on generations of pachyderm brains…."
— Hannah Beech and Muktita Suhartono, The New York Times, 16 July 2020

Did You Know?
Pachydermos in Greek means literally "having thick skin" (figuratively, it means "dull" or "stupid").
It's from pachys, meaning "thick," and derma, meaning "skin."
In the late 1700s, the French naturalist Georges Cuvier adapted the Greek term as pachyderme for any one of a whole assemblage of hoofed animals having thickish skin: elephants, hippopotamuses, rhinoceroses, tapirs, horses, pigs, and more.
English speakers learned the word from French in the early 1800s. The adjective pachydermatous means "of or relating to the pachyderms" or "thickened" (referring to skin).
Not too surprisingly, it also means "callous" or "insensitive" (somewhat unfairly especially to elephants, which are actually known to be rather sensitive).

Inordinate

 WORD OF THE DAY

inordinate / adjective / in-OR-dun-ut

Definition
1a: exceeding reasonable limits
1b: immoderate
2 (archaic): disorderly, unregulated

Examples
"The goalie in hockey, like a quarterback in football, has an inordinate amount of influence on a game."
— Dave Hyde, The South Florida Sun-Sentinel, 31 July 2020

"… we had arrived with our first-ever outdoor grill. However, it was not yet an assembled first-ever outdoor grill. The uncles, assigned to grill duty, gathered in serious conference to study an array of parts. They were intent on putting these parts together, a task that will take them an inordinate amount of time. They were not practiced in construction."
— Ruth Charney, The Recorder (Greenfield, Massachusetts), 27 Aug. 2020

Did You Know?
At one time, if something was "inordinate," it did not conform to the expected or desired order of things. That sense, synonymous with disorderly or unregulated, is now archaic, but it offers a hint as to the origins of inordinate.
The word traces back to the Latin verb ordinare, meaning "to arrange," combined with the negative prefix in-.
Ordinare is also the ancestor of such English words as coordination, ordain, ordination, and subordinate.
The Latin root is a derivative of the noun ordo, meaning "order" or "arrangement," from which the English order and its derivatives originate.