New Game: What's the Word?

[DarkRavie]

What's the Word: CONVERSANT

pronunciation: [kən-VER-sənt]

 

Part of speech: adjective

Origin: Middle English, 13th century

 

Meaning:

1. Familiar with or knowledgeable about something.

 

Examples:

"Charlene was conversant with wines, so we let her choose the vintage."

"Video games have made some players surprisingly conversant with minute details of history."

About Conversant

“Conversant” is related to the Latin word “converse,” meaning to live in a place and among people, or to associate with. In its earliest iteration, “conversant” referred to living consistently in one place. By the 15th century, “conversant” was coming to mean living or associating with something or someone. By the 17th century, it was common to use “conversant” with its modern meaning of being well-versed in a subject.

 

Did you Know?

Both “conversant” and “conversation” relate to the Latin root “converse,” which can be read in many different ways. Over the years, to “converse” has meant to live or associate with others, to have sexual intercourse, to make business deals and trade in goods, to hold inward communion with, and to engage in conversation. “Conversant” refers less to the conversational aspects of its root word and more to the idea of proximity. One who is conversant with a subject is someone who has lived close to it for a long time and knows it intimately.

 

[DarkRavie]

What's the Word: JUDDER

pronunciation: [JUH-dər]

 

Part of speech: verb

Origin: Chiefly British, early 20th century

 

Meaning:

1. (Especially of something mechanical) shake and vibrate rapidly and with force.

 

Examples:

"The gearshift would judder every time Mike started the car."

"The girl juddered in the cold breeze because she wasn’t dressed warmly."

About Judder

This word was first used around the 1930s, likely as an imitative of the word “shudder.”

 

Did you Know?

When the motion is a little choppy on the TV, this is known as “judder.” In more technical terms, it occurs when the frame rate of the content on the screen doesn’t divide evenly into the refresh rate of the TV it’s playing on. This often happens when displaying cinematic 24p content on a panel that uses a refresh rate of 60 Hz — meaning the display refreshes 60 times every second.

 

[DarkRavie]

What's the Word: FOSSICK

pronunciation: [FAH-sik]

 

Part of speech: verb

Origin: Australia and New Zealand, mid-19th century

 

Meaning:

1. (informal) Rummage; search.

2. Search for gold in abandoned workings.

 

Examples:

"Alvin went to the flea market to fossick for interesting trinkets."

"The prospectors went to great lengths to fossick for gold."

About Fossick

This term was coined in the 1850s by Australians and New Zealanders, but it may be rooted in a word known to British immigrants: “fussock,” a dialect term meaning "to bustle about" or "to fidget."

 

Did you Know?

“Fossick” is a term that became popular with 19th-century Aussies and Kiwis who picked over abandoned mining excavations to search for gold or gemstones. In Australia, "fossicking" is protected by a number of laws which vary from state to state. For example, in Queensland, fossickers must obtain a license, but in New South Wales, there is no such requirement. Interestingly, searching for opal has its own specific term: “noodling,” which is also a term for catfish fishing in the southern United States.

 

 

[DarkRavie]

What's the Word: PENTIMENTO

pronunciation: [pen-tə-MEN-toh]

 

Part of speech: noun

Origin: Italian, 19th century

 

Meaning:

1. A visible trace of earlier painting beneath a layer or layers of paint on a canvas.

 

Examples:

"Beneath the image of the bull in the center of the painting, there was a pentimento of a ship’s mast."

"Robyn left a pentimento of the image he had painted over peeking out from beneath his painting."

About Pentimento

The Italian “pentimento” means “to repent,” or “to make a correction or update.” In English, it describes the visible memory of a previous image beneath a more recent painting as an artifact of artistic correction or update to the previous work of art.

 

Did you Know?

Often, a pentimento (“pentimenti” is the plural form) is the product of correction in a painting. In some cases, a painting may be entirely painted over with a new work, leaving behind the ghost of the original image as a pentimento. However, pentimenti may reveal aspects of the artist’s process. Works by most of the great masters rarely contain these remnants, but Caravaggio and Rembrandt tended to paint more experimentally, with less prior planning. They more frequently made changes on canvas as they worked, sometimes leaving pentimenti.

 

[DarkRavie]

What's the Word: SERRIED

pronunciation: [SAIR-eed]

 

Part of speech: adjective

Origin: French, mid-17th century

 

Meaning:

1. (Of rows of people or things) Standing close together.

 

Examples:

"The doors opened to reveal the elevator was already full of serried passengers."

"I wanted to stay for the last band of the night, but the crowd was so serried, I could barely breathe."

About Serried

The adjective “serried” is based on the related verb “serry” (meaning “press close”), a loanword from the French “serré,” meaning “tight,” “cramped,” or “locked.”

 

Did you Know?

One of the places most famously full of serried travelers is the Tokyo subway system, which moves 9 million people every day. During off-hours, Tokyo’s subways are rarely crowded, but as rush hour begins, a Tokyo train has a more tightly serried population than most spots on Earth. The crowds are so heavy that the subway authority employs white-gloved attendants (known as “passenger pushers”) to squeeze riders into cars in a serried formation in order to allow the doors to close.

 

[DarkRavie]

What's the Word: NOCUOUS

pronunciation: [NAHK-yoo-əs]

 

Part of speech: adjective

Origin: Latin, mid-17th century

 

Meaning:

1. Noxious, harmful, or poisonous.

 

Examples:

"The lab techs wore close-fitting face masks to protect them from the nocuous liquids they were mixing."

"Removing the nocuous plants growing behind the garden was a complicated job."

About Nocuous

“Nocuous” is based on the Latin “nocuus,” an adjective based on the verb “nocere,” meaning “to hurt.”

 

Did you Know?

The definition for “nocuous” in the Oxford English Dictionary includes the words “poisonous” and “venomous.” But talk to a veterinarian or park ranger, and they’ll tell you that those two words are not synonyms. A poison is a toxin that enters the body by inhalation, swallowing, or absorption through the skin (think: poison ivy). Venom is a toxin that enters the body through injection: snake bites, bee stings, spider bites, etc. So, while both venom and poison are nocuous in that they are harmful, they are not synonymous with each other.

 

[DarkRavie]

What's the Word: EBULLITION

pronunciation: [eb-ə-LIH-shən]

 

Part of speech: noun

Origin: Latin, late 16th century

 

Meaning:

1. The action of bubbling or boiling.

2. A sudden outburst of emotion or violence.

 

Examples:

"The professor asked lab students to heat hydrochloric acid to its ebullition point."

"When I got my college acceptance letter, I had an ebullition of tears of joy."

About Ebullition

“Ebullition” is based on the Latin “ēbullītiō,” meaning “bubbling up.”

 

Did you Know?

Making candy at home requires close attention to the temperature of ebullition. Most candies begin as sugar syrups, which are then boiled to precise temperatures in order to achieve certain characteristics of clarity versus cloudiness, or hardness versus chewiness. High-temperature ebullition is necessary to turn sugar syrup into hard candy, and it requires a gentle touch, since boiling sugar syrup risks splashing back at the chef.

 

 

[DarkRavie]

What's the Word: LABILITY

pronunciation: [lə-BIL-ə-dee]

 

Part of speech: noun

Origin: Middle French, 14th century

 

Meaning:

1. Liability to change; ease of alteration.

 

Examples:

"The lability of children’s moods makes planning their birthday parties a challenge."

"Chloe has been surprised by the lability of her musical tastes over the years."

About Lability

“Lability” is derived from the Middle French term “labilité,” itself based on the Latin “lābilis,” meaning “apt to slip.”

 

Did you Know?

In its original form at the beginning of the Renaissance, the word “lability” didn’t just refer to the potential for a person or thing to change. Instead, in the 16th century, “lability” denoted a person’s likelihood of slipping into error, sin, irrationality, or bad behavior. By the 1700s, the term had come to mean simply “instability.” The neutral definition of “lability” (referring to transience or changeability) won out in the ensuing centuries. Today, “lability” is most often used in psychology as a term for emotional fluctuation and responsiveness.

 

[DarkRavie]

What's the Word: OSMOSE

pronunciation: [ahz-MOZ]

 

Part of speech: verb

Origin: English, 19th century

 

Meaning:

1. Pass by or as if by osmosis.

 

Examples:

"When the good cherries are in season, news of their arrival osmoses through the neighborhood."

"I don’t follow the news because I know the big stories will osmose their way to me eventually."

About Osmose

“Osmose” is a back-formation, created out of the word “osmosis.” “Osmosis” itself is from the Greek “ὠσμός” (“ōsmós”), meaning “push.”

 

Did you Know?

Osmosis, the process by which water and other solvents pass through membranes, was first documented in the mid-1700s by French scientists, and by the 1800s, the word had moved into English. While this was an exciting new scientific idea, the notion that one thing could pass into another simply through contact with it made a great metaphor for the way knowledge moves among people. By 1900, “osmosis” was being used to describe the state of absorbing ideas and knowledge we don’t notice ourselves taking in. Within a few decades, the verb “osmose” had been created to describe the action of absorbing ideas in that way.

 

[DarkRavie]

What's the Word: SYNOPSIZE

pronunciation: [sə-NAHP-siyz]

 

Part of speech: verb

Origin: American English, 19th century

 

Meaning:

1. Give a brief summary or general survey of (something).

 

Examples:

"Sydney used the commercial breaks of the Dodgers game to synopsize the at-bats for her husband, who was grilling dinner outside."

"I find it difficult to synopsize movies when people ask me."

About Synopsize

The verb “synopsize” is an American addition to English, formed out of the noun “synopsis.” That word entered English in the 17th century from the Latin “synopsis” and the Greek “σύνοψις” (“súnopsis”), both meaning “whole view.” In the 19th century, American speakers added the suffix “-ize,” making a verb of the noun.

 

Did you Know?

Students around the world have taken advantage of CliffsNotes, which synopsize literary works into easy-to-digest summaries and study guides. But the business model was started in 1948 with Coles Notes, produced by Canadian bookstore Coles. In 1958, Nebraskan Clifton Hillegass licensed the U.S. rights to the idea and launched CliffsNotes, synopsizing in simple language 16 Shakespearean plays, before going on to synopsize hundreds of works of literature and academic subjects. Today, CliffsNotes have been challenged by the rise of websites that offer free versions of similar services.

 

[DarkRavie]

What's the Word: LAUDABLE

pronunciation: [LAW-də-bəl]

 

Part of speech: adjective

Origin: Latin, 15th century

 

Meaning:

1. (Of an action, idea, or goal) Deserving praise and commendation.

 

Examples:

"The neighbors commended my teenage son’s laudable efforts to clean up the local park."

"Despite a laudable effort to tie the game in the ninth inning, the visiting team was defeated."

About Laudable

“Laudable” is based on the Latin “laudābilis,” which means “worthy of being praised.”

 

Did you Know?

Many celebrities are beloved because of their laudable acts. We don’t just love Dolly Parton because she’s a talented singer and songwriter, but also because she gives generously to medical, educational, and social causes. Public figures who do such laudable things with their money and influence are inspiring because they offer an example of how to live well, and their audiences tend to reward them with adoration.

 

[DarkRavie]

What's the Word: EXISTENTIAL

pronunciation: [eg-zi-STEN-shəl]

 

Part of speech: adjective

Origin: Latin, 17th century

 

Meaning:

1. Relating to existence.

2. Based on subjective experience.

 

Examples:

"An afternoon this hot poses an existential threat to any ice cream we buy."

"Teenagers often begin asking existential questions about the meaning of life."

About Existential

“Existential” is based on the Latin “existentia,” meaning “existence.”

 

Did you Know?

“Existential” is most closely associated with the Existentialist movement in philosophy. Existentialism is fundamentally about seeking to determine meanings in human existence and can be summed up with the expression, “Existence precedes essence.” This approach presumes there is no core essence to being alive decided before a person is born. Because of this, many existentialists believe meaning in life is created by maintaining high standards of ethical conduct, while fostering kindness to others. Though existentialism has often been associated with nonreligious thinkers such as Jean-Paul Sartre, there were also important Christian and Jewish existentialist philosophers, namely Søren Kierkegaard and Martin Buber.

 

Edited June 10 by DarkRavie

[DarkRavie]

What's the Word: KEYSTONE

pronunciation: [KEE-stohn]

 

Part of speech: noun

Origin: English, 17th century

 

Meaning:

1. A central stone at the summit of an arch, locking the whole together.

2. The central principle or part of a policy, system, etc., on which all else depends.

 

Examples:

"The last year’s monthly profits were the keystone of the CEO’s argument for a new sales approach."

"The health of some species, such as elephants, is considered the keystone of an entire ecosystem."

About Keystone

“Keystone” is an architectural and building term formed in English by fusing the noun “key,” meaning both “an object to open and close a lock” and “a crucial step,” with the noun “stone.”

 

Did you Know?

In order to complete the building of a stone arch, traditional masons place a final stone at the peak of the arch to connect all the other pieces while redistributing their weight. This is called a “keystone,” both because it is crucial to the integrity of the structure, and because without it, the arch cannot be locked together. Without a keystone, a traditional stone arch will collapse under its own weight. In modern English, “keystone” refers to any central idea or value upon which other things are based.

 

[DarkRavie]

What's the Word: NOTIONATE

pronunciation: [NO-shuh-nit]

 

Part of speech: adjective

Origin: English, 19th century

 

Meaning:

1. Notional. Existing as or based on a suggestion, estimate, or theory; not existing in reality.

2. Given to fanciful thinking or exaggerated imagination.

 

Examples:

"Elves, gnomes, and fairies are all notionate, but many people are fascinated by them."

"My father claimed he’d been visited by gnomes, but he was a notionate fellow."

About Notionate

The term is a combination of the English word “notion,” from the Latin “nōtiō,” with the suffix “-ate,” which creates an adjective based on “notion.”

 

Did you Know?

“Notionate” has been overtaken in English by its synonym “notional,” and exists today mainly as a regional expression in the Southern U.S., Northern Ireland, and Scotland. In nearly all contexts, the term has been used to describe a state of exaggerated imagination. For example, a person describing their grandfather as “old-fashioned and notionate” might be implying that the man is very superstitious and believes in ghosts, elves, or other notionate creatures.

 

[DarkRavie]

What's the Word: SMORGASBORD

pronunciation: [SMOR-ɡəs-bord]

 

Part of speech: noun

Origin: Swedish, 19th century

 

Meaning:

1. A buffet offering a variety of hot and cold meats, salads, hors d'oeuvres, etc.

2. A wide range of something; a variety.

 

Examples:

"The hungry travelers were delighted to discover their hosts had prepared a smorgasbord of meats, cheeses, breads, and spreads."

"Tanni’s vinyl collection was a smorgasbord of musical styles that reflected her varied tastes and moods."

About Smorgasbord

The term is taken directly from the Swedish “smörgåsbord,” formed by combining “smörgås,” meaning “bread and butter,” and “bord,” meaning “table.”

 

Did you Know?

English speakers rarely use “smorgasbord” to describe a table stocked with different foods. Instead, this term is mostly figurative, to describe a variety of things in one place. While a Swedish restaurant might offer a literal smorgasbord of pickled herring, ham, meatballs, and mashed potatoes, a health spa might be said to offer a smorgasbord of steam rooms and dry saunas, whirlpools, ice baths, and massage rooms.

 

[DarkRavie]

What's the Word: WHEEPLE

pronunciation: [WEE-pəl]

 

Part of speech: verb

Origin: Scottish dialect, 10th century

 

Meaning:

1. To emit a shrill cry or whistle, sometimes feebly.

 

Examples:

"The chicks in the nest outside my window wheepled as they waited for their mother to bring them worms."

"CJ wheepled up to Veronica’s window, hoping not to wake her parents."

About Wheeple

“Wheeple” is a Scottish dialect term adopted into English in the early 19th century.

 

Did you Know?

The term “wheeple” in Scottish also appeared as “whipple,” “wheeble,” “wheeffle,” and “feeple,” and originally referred particularly to the high-pitched cries of birds such as the plover and curlew. After the mid-19th century, “wheeple” also described people whistling, especially tunelessly.

 

[DarkRavie]

What's the Word: AMPHIGORY

pronunciation: [AM-fi-gohr-ee]

 

Part of speech: noun

Origin: French, 18th century

 

Meaning:

1. Nonsense verse that appears at first hearing to have meaning, but which reveals itself to be meaningless under scrutiny.

 

Examples:

"Lewis Carroll’s poem ‘Jabberwocky’ is an amphigory that sounds like regular English, until one examines its nonsense words in detail."

"I was struggling to understand my poetry assignment, until a friend told me it was an amphigory and couldn’t be understood."

About Amphigory

“Amphigory” comes from the French “amphigouri,” which is based on the prefix “amphi-,” from the Greek “ἀμϕι,” meaning “both sides.” The basis for “-gory” is unknown, but may be connected with the Greek “ηγορία,” meaning “speech.”

 

Did you Know?

A well-known amphigory is found in the closing credits of the 1980s sitcom “WKRP in Cincinnati.” Musician Jim Ellis wrote music for a song to play over the end credits, but didn’t yet have words prepared, so in an early demo, he sang gibberish over the hard-rock backing track and was surprised to discover it sounded effective. At a time when critics complained rock vocals were becoming unintelligible, the meaningless syllables belted over the closing credits of “WKRP” were a joke of their own.

 

[DarkRavie]

What's the Word: GUSTO

pronunciation: [GUS-toh]

 

Part of speech: noun

Origin: Italian, 17th century

 

Meaning:

1. Enjoyment or vigor in doing something; zest.

 

Examples:

"We tore into the basket of fresh cherries with gusto."

"The guests ate with gusto, devouring plates of food as fast as we could serve them up."

About Amphigory

“Gusto” entered English in the mid-1600s directly from the Italian “gusto,” meaning “taste.” The Italian word derives from the Latin “gustus,” also meaning “taste.”

 

Did you Know?

While “gusto” can refer to anything done with passionate enjoyment, the word is often associated with the act of eating, thanks to the Italian root word translating to “taste.” The words “gustatory,” meaning “concerned with tasting,” and “gustation,” meaning “tasting,” derive from the same root. However, the noun “gust,” describing a strong, brief wind, is taken from the Old Norse “gust,” meaning “gush,” rather than from the Latin for “taste.”

 

[DarkRavie]

What's the Word: ATTORNMENT

pronunciation: [ə-TURN-mənt]

 

Part of speech: noun

Origin: French, 15th century

 

Meaning:

1. The formal transference of something to someone else.

 

Examples:

"When another management company took over our apartment building, all tenants signed updated leases reflecting the attornment to the new landlord."

"Roy hired a broker to handle the attornment of his company shares into real-estate investments."

About Attornment

“Attornment” comes from the French “atorner,” meaning “to turn.”

 

Did you Know?

On July 1, 1997, Hong Kong was transferred from the domain of the United Kingdom to the People’s Republic of China. At that point, Hong Kong had been a British colony for 156 years, but in 1898, the U.K. leased Hong Kong Territory for 99 years. At the end of that lease, the attornment of Hong Kong into Chinese power occurred. However, this transfer was not total. Rather than becoming a whole part of China, Hong Kong will retain its currency, legal system, legislative system, and capitalist economy until 2047, 50 years after the original attornment was carried out.

 

Edited June 17 by DarkRavie

[DarkRavie]

What's the Word: MUMPSIMUS

pronunciation: [MUMP-sə-məs]

 

Part of speech: noun

Origin: Latin, 16th century

 

Meaning:

1. A traditional custom or notion adhered to although shown to be unreasonable.

2. A person who obstinately adheres to unreasonable customs or notions.

 

Examples:

"David is a mountaineering mumpsimus, rejecting all modern equipment in favor of heavy, archaic gear that isn’t even waterproof."

"When he has a cold, my mumpsimus father insists on drinking whiskey with honey and lemon, rather than hydrating himself and resting."

About Mumpsimus

From the Latin “mumpsimus,” which was initially an error based on the Latin “sumpsimus,” meaning “I have taken.”

 

Did you Know?

The meaning of “mumpsimus” is built into the way the word was coined. According to Dutch philosopher Desiderius Erasmus, the term was created when an old monk mispronounced the Latin word “sumpsimus” (“I have taken”) as “mumpsimus” while reciting the Eucharist, and then refused to be corrected and continued using the new word “mumpsimus” in place of the proper term. The definition of the word came from this refusal to accept correction when one is wrong, coupled with steadfast insistence on doing things the wrong way.