Ignis fatuus

WORD OF THE DAY

ignis fatuus / noun / IG-nis FATCH-uh-wus

Definition
1: a light that sometimes appears in the night over marshy ground and is often attributable to the combustion of gas from decomposed organic matter
2: a deceptive goal or hope

Examples
"The flickering lights that led superstitious voyagers astray are not mere legends. So-called ignis fatuus, or 'foolish fire,' is a real phenomenon: a ball of flame that hovers above a marsh’s dark, still water for a few minutes before dissipating into the night."
— Benji Jones, Popular Science, 31 Oct. 2018

The story also helped explain ignis fatuus, a natural phenomenon that occurs in marshlands and bogs—such as those in Ireland’s countryside—producing flickering lights as gases from decomposing organic matter combust.
—National Geographic, 27 Oct. 2020

Did You Know?
Ignis fatuus is a Latin term meaning, literally, "foolish fire."
Other names for this light are jack-o'-lantern and will-o'-the-wisp—both of which are connected to folklore about mysterious men, Jack and Will, who carry a lantern or a wisp of light at night.
A Scottish name for ignis fatuus is spunkie, from spunk, meaning "spark" or "a small fire."
It has also been told that ignes fatui (the Latin plural form) are roaming souls.
No doubt these stories spooked listeners by candlelight, but in time, advancements in science not only gave us electricity to dispel the darkness but proved ignis fatuus to be a visible exhalation of gas from the ground, which is rarely seen today.

Fraught

WORD OF THE DAY

fraught / adjective / FRAWT

Definition
1: full of or accompanied by something specified —used with a situation fraught with danger
2a: causing or characterized by emotional distress or tension
2b: uneasy
3a (archaic): laden
3b: well supplied or provided
4 (chiefly Scotland): load, cargo, freight

Examples
“Today, campus life is much more stressful, fraught, time-stressed and anxiety-ridden. Compared to high school, college is far more academically rigorous and represents the very first time that many students have ever earned less than an A.”
 — Steven Mintz, Inside Higher Ed, 2 Jan. 2023

Determining what makes one species different from another is a fraught, complicated process even among living animals, the researchers emphasized.
—Katie Hunt, CNN, 25 July 2022

Did You Know?
An early instance of the word fraught occurs in the 14th century poem Richard Coer de Lion, about England’s King Richard I:
“The drowmound was so hevy fraught 
That unethe myght it saylen aught”

It is about a large fast-sailing ship so heavily fraught—that is, loaded—that it can barely sail. The use is typical for the time; originally, something that was fraught was laden with freight.
For centuries, fraught continued to be used in relation to loaded ships, but its use was eventually broadened for situations that are heavy with tension, emotion, or some other weighty characteristic.

Challah

WORD OF THE DAY

challah / noun / HAH-luh or KHAH-luh

Definition
: egg-rich yeast-leavened bread that is usually braided or twisted before baking and is traditionally eaten by Jews on the Sabbath and holidays

Examples
“Flour was everywhere, scraps of fried potato lined the counters, dishes were piled up in the sink, and I somehow looked less camera-ready than I had at the start of the night, my hair falling out of its messy bun and my cooking wounds announcing themselves even from beneath Band-Aids. I didn’t care, though, because my house smelled like fresh challah, a scent I won’t even bother attempting to describe for fear of botching its essential goodness.”
— Emma Specter, Vogue, 6 Oct. 2022

French brioche, Jewish challah, Swiss zopf, Italian pane di pasqua -- many cultures have their own version of a sweet, and often braided, bread.
—Casey Barber, CNN, 15 Apr. 2022

Did You Know?
When English speakers first borrowed challah from Yiddish, they couldn't quite settle on a single spelling, so the word showed up in several forms; challah and hallah, and the plural forms challot, challoth, challahs, hallot, halloth, and hallahs were all common enough to merit inclusion in Webster's Third New International Dictionary, Unabridged when it was released in 1961.
Today, challah and the anglicized plural challahs are the variants that are usually encountered by English speakers.
The initial ch of challah is frequently pronounced as a velar or uvular fricative, like the ch in the German Buch or the Scottish English loch.

Portend

WORD OF THE DAY

portend / verb / por-TEND

Definition
1: to give an omen or anticipatory sign of
2: indicate, signify

Examples
“While readers may at times wish [author Robert] Hardman’s own views were presented more directly, he ultimately makes a clear argument that the United Kingdom—however loosely united it is these days—is unlikely to do away with the monarchy, even if the end of the Elizabethan era portends significant changes.”
— Autumn Brewington, The Washington Post, 12 Sept. 2022

And the way Clemson arrived on the scene and stayed could portend exactly what the Bulldogs are preparing to do.
—cleveland, 9 Nov. 2022

Did You Know?
It may seem like a stretch to say that portend, beloved verb of seers, soothsayers, and meteorologists alike, is related to tendon—the word we use to refer to the dense white fibrous tissue that helps us, well, stretch—but it’s likely true.
Portend comes from the Latin verb portendere (“to predict or foretell”), which in turn developed as a combination of the prefix por- (“forward”) and the verb tendere (“to stretch”).
Tendere is thought to have led to tendon, among other words.
So you might imagine portend as having a literal meaning of “stretching forward to predict.”
In any event, the history of the word surely showcases the flexibility of our language.

Eleemosynary

WORD OF THE DAY

eleemosynary / adjective / el-ih-MAH-suh-nair-ee

Definition
: of, relating to, or supported by charity

Example
"I would not want you to think that Grady Thrasher is not a serious man. ... He is a retired attorney, a prize-winning children's author, a filmmaker, a philanthropist, and the partner, with his wife—artist Kathy Prescott—in various eleemosynary endeavors."
— Pete McCommons, Flagpole.com (Athens, Georgia), 2 Nov. 2022

Did You Know?
A grammarian once asserted in reference to eleemosynary that "a long and learned word like this should only be used under the stress of great need."
Whether or not you agree with such prescriptions, the word eleemosynary isn't exactly ubiquitous. Its tricky spelling doesn’t do it any favors—though this wasn’t always the case.
The good people of early England had mercy on themselves when it came to spelling and shortened the root of eleemosynary, the Latin eleemosyna, to ælmes, which they used to mean "charity."
You may be more familiar with alms, an ælmes derivative that refers to food, money, etc., given to the poor.
The original Latin root, however, was resurrected in the early 17th century to give us our modern conundrum of a spelling.