Patina

WORD OF THE DAY

patina / noun / puh-TEE-nuh

Definition
1a: a usually green film formed naturally on copper and bronze by long exposure or artificially (as by acids) and often valued aesthetically for its color
1b: a surface appearance of something grown beautiful especially with age or use
2: an appearance or aura that is derived from association, habit, or established character
3: a superficial covering or exterior

Examples
"She has attracted a popular following for stories grounded in historical fact, adorned with a patina of romance and adventure."
— Stephanie Parkyn, Canberra Times (Australia), 1 Jan. 2022

The owners of this 18-room townhouse added modern appliances but kept the patina of the room’s existing subway tile.
— Monique Valeris, ELLE Decor, 11 July 2022

Did You Know?
When Italians began using patina in the 17th century to refer to the green film that forms on the surface of copper, they were drawing on Latin, in which patina means "a shallow dish." (Presumably, the Italian meaning developed from the observation of such film forming on copper dishes.)
By the mid-18th century, English speakers were also calling the green film patina, and by the 20th century, they'd expanded the word's application to surface appearances of things that have grown more beautiful with age or use—think of an old wooden desk or a tarnished silver goblet.
Use of the word to refer to thin layers both literal and figurative ("a patina of grime," "a patina of respectability") followed soon after.

Nebulous

 WORD OF THE DAY

nebulous / adjective / NEB-yuh-lus

Definition
1a: of, relating to, or resembling a nebula
1b: nebular
2: indistinct, vague

Examples
"Instead of promoting nebulous concepts of 'diplomacy,' we should turn to the principles of negotiations and focus on concrete questions."
— Anastassia Fedyk, The Los Angeles Times, 12 June 2022

The reasons for all of this are a bit nebulous with lots of talk about demand unexpectedly outpacing supply, but there’s likely a healthy dose of opportunism here as well.
— Jonah Flicker, Robb Report, 19 June 2022

Did You Know?
Nebulous may sound other-worldly—after all, it’s related to nebula, which refers to a distant galaxy or an interstellar cloud of gas or dust—but its mysteriousness is rooted in more earthly unknowns.
Both words ultimately come from Latin nebula, meaning “mist, cloud,” and as far back as the 14th century nebulous could mean simply “cloudy” or “foggy.”
Nebulous has since the late 17th century been the adjective correlating to nebula (as in “nebulous gas”), but the word is more familiar in its figurative use, where it describes things that are indistinct or vague, as when Jack London wrote of “ideas that were nebulous at best and that in reality were remembered sensations.”
In English, nebula refers to a cloud of gas or dust in deep space, or in less technical contexts, simply to a galaxy.
One's memory of a long-past event, for example, will often be nebulous; a teenager might give a nebulous recounting of an evening's events upon coming home; or a politician might make a campaign promise but give only a nebulous description of how he or she would fulfill it.

Ineffable

WORD OF THE DAY

ineffable / adjective / in-EFF-uh-bul

Definition
1a: incapable of being expressed in words
1b: indescribable
1c: unspeakable
2a: not to be uttered
2b: taboo

Examples
"But onstage alone, talking to a crowd, he's smooth as can be. A seductive presence, he has that ineffable quality of stardom: a preternatural ability to connect."
— Jason Zinoman, The New York Times, 28 May 2022

Watch the movie to get a sense of that ineffable ingredient, and the sometimes-subtle ways that Streisand deploys it.
— Globe Staff, BostonGlobe.com, 26 May 2022

Did You Know?
"Every tone was a testimony against slavery, and a prayer to God for deliverance from chains.
The hearing of those wild notes always depressed my spirit, and filled me with ineffable sadness," wrote Frederick Douglass in his autobiography.
Reading Douglass's words, it's clear that ineffable means "indescribable" or "unspeakable."
And when we break the word down to its Latin roots, we see how those meanings came about.
Ineffable comes from ineffābilis, which joins the prefix in-, meaning "not," with the adjective effābilis, meaning "capable of being expressed."
Effābilis comes from effārī, "to speak out," which in turn comes from ex- and fārī, meaning “to speak.”