Cocoon

WORD OF THE DAY

cocoon / verb / kuh-KOON

Definition

: to wrap or envelop in or as if in a cocoon

Examples

Lily got out of the water and cocooned herself in a large beach blanket.

"By the time the United States entered World War I, France and England had been battling the Germans, the Turks and the Austro-Hungarians for nearly four years…. America, cocooned by great oceans, saw the struggle as distant and obscene." 

— Wayne Washington, The Palm Beach (Florida) Post, 23 Jan. 2020

Did You Know?

Since at least the late 1600s, English speakers have been using the noun cocoon for the silky covering that surrounds a caterpillar or other insect larva in the pupa stage of metamorphosis. 

The word derives, via French cocon, from Occitan coucoun, which, in turn, emerged from coco, an Occitan term for "shell." Linguists believe the Occitan term was probably born of the Latin word coccum, a noun that has been translated as kermes, which refers to the dried bodies of some insects that are sometimes found on certain trees. 

The verb cocoon has been with us since the latter half of the 19th century.

Pleonasm

WORD OF THE DAY

pleonasm / noun / PLEE-uh-naz-um

Definition

1a: the use of more words than those necessary to denote mere sense (as in the man he said) 

1b: redundancy

2: an instance or example of pleonasm

Examples

The grammarian's recent post discussed pleonasms, such as "past history" and "personal friend."

"Like most writers, I can be a stickler about language, but anyone who hangs out with me for long enough will learn that I favor a certain ungrammatical turn of phrase: 'true fact.' Technically speaking, that expression is a pleonasm—a redundant description—since all facts are, by definition, true." 

— Kathryn Schulz, The New Yorker, 19 Dec. 2018

Did You Know?

Pleonasm, which stems (via Late Latin) from the Greek verb pleonazein, meaning "to be excessive," is a fancy word for "redundancy." It's related to our words plus and plenty, and ultimately it goes back to the Greek word for "more," which is pleōn. 

Pleonasm is commonly considered a fault of style, but it can also serve a useful function. "Extra" words can sometimes be helpful to a speaker or writer in getting a message across, adding emphasis, or simply adding an appealing sound and rhythm to a phrase—as, for example, with the pleonasm "I saw it with my own eyes!"

Loon

WORD OF THE DAY

loon /noun / LOON 

Definition

1: lout, idler

2(chiefly Scotland): boy

3a: a crazy person

3b: simpleton

Examples

"He eagerly races by local cop Tom … at 300 mph, unwittingly shedding magical blue hair as he goes. He also teases Crazy Carl …, the local loon who no one believes when he insists he's seen a blue alien. If you didn't know any better, you'd think Sonic wanted to get caught so he could have a family, friends, heck—a connection with anyone." 

— Dan Hudak, The Monterey County (California) Weekly, 13 Feb. 2020

"The third subscription … was Rolling Stone, the best introduction to counter-culture a 10-year-old could ever ask for…. I never understood the political writing, and I distinctly remember thinking Hunter S. Thompson was a loon. But when it came to the articles about musicians, I hung on every word." 

— Shane Brown, The Quad-City Times (Davenport, Iowa), 27 Jan. 2020

Did You Know?

There are a number of theories about the origin of loon as it refers to a crazy person, its most common current meaning. One is that it comes from loony, meaning "crazy." But based on currently available evidence, loony is a late 19th-century alteration of lunatic that didn't come into use until decades after the meaning of loon in question. 

(It's still possible that loony influenced the development and spread of this meaning of loon.) Another guess is that this loon is from the avian loon, inspired either by the bird's maniacal cry or its displays to distract predators, such as skittering over water with its neck crooked. 

This is certainly possible, and is the origin story favored by some. But the story our dictionaries favor is a bit more quotidian: the current use of loon developed from earlier uses, primarily in Scottish and other northern dialects of British English, of loon to refer to a lout (an awkward, brutish person) or idler (someone who is idle, lazy, or inactive). 

While that loon, which is from Middle English loun, never spread to British English more broadly, immigrants from the regions where it was used had a significant influence on American English, and it's not far-fetched to posit that their loon developed into the distinctly American use of the word to refer to daffy people.