New Game: What's the Word?

[DarkRavie]

What's the Word: RUFOUS

pronunciation: [ROO-fəs]

 

Part of speech: adjective

Origin: Latin, 18th century

 

Meaning: 

1. Reddish brown in color.

 

Example:

"The dog was a mutt, with rufous fur like a Saint-Bernard and pointy ears like a German Shepherd."

"The leaves of many trees in northern Vermont become rufous by late October."

 

About Rufous

In Latin, “rūfus” refers to red or red hair.

 

Did You Know?

The term “rufus” was used widely enough centuries ago that it appeared on the graves of ancient Thracians, who took pride both in red hair and successes in battle. Because of this long association with red hair, “rufous” has largely been used in English to describe the colorings of birds and other animals. Accordingly, “Rufus” was a common 19th century name for a red-haired man among English-speaking countries. (It's still used today, although those with the name needn't be red-headed.)

 

[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.

 

Example:

"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 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 updating 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, often pentimenti reveal aspects of the artist’s process, as they would paint over different iterations of the work. 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: PEDAGOGUE

pronunciation: [PED-ə-gog]

 

Part of speech: noun

Origin: Middle English, late 14th century

 

Meaning: 

1. (Formal, humorous) A teacher, especially a strict or pedantic one.

 

Example:

"Mr. Mullins was a well-known pedagogue."

"The strictest teachers have been branded as pedagogues by their students."

 

About Pedagogue

This Late Middle English word stems from Latin via the Greek “paidagōgos,” denoting an enslaved person who accompanied a child to school. Comes from “pais,” meaning “paid-,” “boy” and “agōgos,” meaning “guide.

 

Did You Know?

While a pedagogue is described as a dull or strict educator, in the education field, “pedagogy” is specific to the teaching of children or dependent personalities. “Andragogy,” on the other hand, refers to methods and principles used to teach adults, and an andragogue is an adult educator who uses these methods.

 

[DarkRavie]

What's the Word: LACUNA

pronunciation: [lə-KYOO-nə]

 

Part of speech: noun

Origin: Latin, mid-17th century

 

Meaning: 

1. An unfilled space or interval; a gap. A missing portion in a book or manuscript.

2. (Anatomy) A cavity or depression, especially in bone.

 

Example:

"The lacuna in the manuscript made it a confusing read."

"Her forearm had a lacuna due to improper bone development."

 

About Lacuna

This word comes from the Latin “lacuna,” meaning "hole, pit," or in a figurative sense, "a gap, void, want." It is a diminutive of “lacus,” meaning "pond, lake; hollow, opening."

 

Did You Know?

Lacunas can pop up across many disciplines. In music, a lacuna is an extended, intentional passage during which no notes are played. A scientific lacuna is an area of science that has yet to be studied. A lacuna in the legal realm is similar to a “non liquet” (English translation is “it is not clear”), or a situation where there is no applicable law.

 

[DarkRavie]

What's the Word: BRACKISH

pronunciation: [BRAK-ish]

 

Part of speech: adjective

Origin: Dutch, 16th century

 

Meaning: 

1. (of water) slightly salty, as is the mixture of river water and seawater in estuaries.

2. Unpleasant or distasteful.

 

Example:

"The fish we caught tasted as brackish as the water we’d pulled them out of."

"The water in the bay was so brackish that we could smell the salt more than a block away."

 

About Brackish

The root for “brackish” is the Dutch “brac,” meaning “salty.” Between the 16th and 17th century, “brackish” existed in English alongside “brack,” a term meaning salt or salt water. “Brack” fell out of use by the 19th century, but “brackish” is still in common use.

 

Did You Know?

Though “brackish” is still intermittently used to describe salt water, the term has always had a secondary meaning suggesting something that has been ruined or spoiled — such as fresh water that has been rendered undrinkable by the addition of salt water. This meaning extends back to the word’s etymological ancestor: In Dutch, as in English, “brak” means both “salty water” and also “bad.” In fact, one modern meaning of “brak” in Dutch is “hungover,” though that definition has not yet made it to English.

 

[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.

 

Example:

"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: 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.

 

Example:

"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: TRANSMUTE

pronunciation: [tranz-MYOOT]

 

Part of speech: verb

Origin: Latin, 15th century

 

Meaning: 

1. Change in form, nature, or substance.

2. Subject (base metals) to alchemical transmutation.

 

Example:

"The goal of alchemy is to transmute lead into gold."

"Shane left the ROTC transmuted into an athlete."

 

About Transmute

The key Latin root to “transmute” is “mūtāre,” meaning “to change.” To this, the word adds the Latin prefix “trans-,” meaning “across” or “beyond.” Together, they suggest a change that moves beyond the original form, nature, or substance.

 

Did You Know?

Beginning in the 17th century, the verb “transmute” became tightly associated with alchemy, the practice of attempting to turn a base metal (copper, lead, nickel, zinc) into a precious metal (gold, silver). Today, alchemy is thought of as an esoteric occult practice, but it was taken seriously as a branch of science and philosophy for centuries, declining only in the 18th century with the rise of the scientific method and modern scientific expectations that theories must be proven with experiments.

 

Edited April 25, 2022 by DarkRavie

[DarkRavie]

What's the Word: NUMERACY

pronunciation: [NOOM-ə-rə-si]

 

Part of speech: noun

Origin: Latin, 20th century

 

Meaning: 

1. The ability to understand and work with numbers.

 

Example:

"John developed his numeracy by balancing the books for his father’s business."

"Many students have a harder time developing numeracy than they do with literacy."

 

About Numeracy

“Numeracy” and its adjective “numerate” were formed in reflection of the existing terms “literacy” and “literate,” discarding those words’ Latin root, “litterātus,” and substituting the Latin root “numerus.”

 

Did You Know?

“Numeracy” is an understanding of numbers: the term describes a person’s comfort and facility using numbers and mathematics in the same way “literacy” describes a state of ease and ability to read printed text. Yet the two terms did not develop side by side. The first appearance of “literate” was in the 15th century, and the noun “literacy” appeared in the 19th century, but “numeracy” did not appear in English until the mid-20th century.

 

[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.

 

Example:

"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: ANTEPENULTIMATE

pronunciation: [an-tə-pə-NUL-tə-mət]

 

Part of speech: adjective

Origin: Latin, 18th century

 

Meaning: 

1. (Attributive) Last but two in a series; third last.

 

Example:

"Lena was the antepenultimate student in line."

"The antepenultimate stanza didn’t seem to fit with the rest of the poem."

 

About Antepenultimate

This word stems from the Late Latin “antepaenultima,” the feminine form of “antepaenultimus,” meaning “preceding the next to last.” “Ante-” means “before,” “pænultima” means "almost" (a word of uncertain origin), and “ultima” means "last."

 

Did You Know?

When it comes to describing the order things come in, ordinal words such as “first,” ”second,” “third,” and “fourth” describe the beginning of a list, but what about the end? Latin gives us more sophisticated words than “last.” “Ultimate” makes sense as the last, or final, object. “Penultimate” is a somewhat familiar term, meaning “second to last, and “antepenultimate” and “preantepenultimate” mean “third from last” and “fourth from last,.” respectively.

 

[DarkRavie]

What's the Word: MACROSCOPIC

pronunciation: [mak-rə-SKA-pik]

 

Part of speech: adjective

Origin: English, 19th century

 

Meaning: 

1. Visible to the naked eye; not microscopic.

2. Relating to large-scale or general analysis.

 

Example:

"A macroscopic view of U.S. food trends considers the practices of all restaurants, caterers, and food-producers."

"The mold growth was microscopic at first, but after several days it had become macroscopic and clearly visible."

 

About Macroscopic

The word “macroscopique” appeared in French in 1865, and English speakers may well have brought it into the language as an obvious opposite to “microscopic,” which had been in use since the 17th century. In both French and English, “macroscopic” combines the prefix “macro-,” meaning “large” or “long,” with the suffix “-scopic,” which refers to the act of watching.

 

Did You Know?

In its initial form, “macroscopic” referred specifically to the opposite of “microscopic,” things so small they could not be viewed with the naked eye. “Macroscopic” things were simply those that could be seen. Over time, however, the term has taken on a metaphoric implication, invoking “a long view” or “the big picture” — both of which are variations on the word’s two roots of “macro” and “scopic,” which together refer to the act of watching in a broad manner.

 

[DarkRavie]

What's the Word: VANGUARD

pronunciation: [VAN-gard]

 

Part of speech: noun

Origin: Old French, 15th century

 

Meaning: 

1. A group of people leading the way in new developments or ideas; a position at the forefront of new developments or ideas.

2. The foremost part of an advancing army or naval force.

 

Example:

"Tom Brady is part of a vanguard of older athletes still delivering peak performance well past average retirement age."

"As an early investor in Bitcoin, Carl was part of the vanguard of the cryptocurrency revolution."

 

About Vanguard

“Vanguard” appeared in the 15th century as a collapsed version of the Old French term “avant-garde” (“forward-guard”), referring to the foremost part of an advancing army. Its definition was chiefly military at first, but by the 19th century, “vanguard” had come into wide use as a metaphor for any group leading the way into new territory.

 

Did You Know?

Like “vanguard,” the root word, “avant-garde,” also derives from a military expression. However, while “vanguard” has stayed true to its description of people leading a new idea forward, the related term “avant-garde” has been applied metaphorically almost exclusively to the world of art and culture. It’s not just forward thinking; instead, avant-garde art moves in unusual or experimental directions.

 

[DarkRavie]

What's the Word: COPYBOOK

pronunciation: [KA-pee-book]

 

Part of speech: adjective

Origin: Old French and Old English, date unknown

 

Meaning: 

1. Exactly in accordance with established criteria; perfect.

2. Tritely conventional.

 

Example:

"Tony did a copybook landing in the flight simulator."

"Trina spoke in copybook inspirational quotes."

 

About Copybook

“Copy” comes from the Old French “copier” and directly from the Medieval Latin “copiare,” meaning "to transcribe." “Book” stems from the Old English “boc,” meaning "book, writing, written document."

 

Did You Know?

While the adjective means “exactly perfect,” the noun form describes an old-fashioned book of handwriting to learn from. Good penmanship was considered a key business skill in the 18th century, so copybooks of the time were often geared toward those wishing to learn business skills. They included chapters on accounting and business management. Students also learned from geography copybooks, where students were first asked to copy names onto unlabeled maps, then copy entire maps onto a latitude/longitude grid.

 

[DarkRavie]

What's the Word: SAPONACEOUS

pronunciation: [sap-ə-NAY-shəs]

 

Part of speech: adjective

Origin: Latin, early 18th century

 

Meaning: 

1. Of, like, or containing soap; soapy.

 

Example:

"A saponaceous substance was smeared on my windshield."

"Tim used a saponaceous liquid to clean the dirt off his tires."

 

About Saponaceous

This word comes from the modern Latin “saponaceus,” stemming from the Latin “sapo,” “sapon-,” meaning “soap,” plus the adjective-forming suffix “-ous.”

 

Did You Know?

“Saponaceous” describes substances used to make soap, such as aloe gel and glycerin, but it can also describe substances that have a soapy feel or appearance, like mica and some shales. It wasn’t until the 19th century that the word started to be used to describe people who exhibit an evasive, slippery character.

 

[DarkRavie]

What's the Word: NOTAPHILY

pronunciation: [no-TAH-fə-lee]

 

Part of speech: noun

Origin: Latin, 1970

 

Meaning: 

1. The collecting of banknotes as a hobby.

 

Example:

"Gerald’s favorite hobby as he entered retirement was notaphily."

"Notaphily can be a time-consuming, expensive hobby.

 

About Notaphily

This word stems from the Latin “nota,” meaning “note,” and “philia,” an ancient Greek term meaning "fondness."

 

Did You Know?

Anyone who’s seriously into notaphily can tell you that the rarest of U.S. currency notes is the 1890 “Grand Watermelon” $1,000 bill. It earned its nickname because the color and design of the large zeroes on the reverse side resemble watermelons. In 2014, one sold at auction for $3.29 million, making it the single most valuable piece of currency in existence. Only two “Grand Watermelons” are thought to still exist, with one being held at the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco.

 

[DarkRavie]

What's the Word: REMONTANT

pronunciation: [rə-MAHN-tənt]

 

Part of speech: adjective

Origin: French, mid-19th century

 

Meaning: 

1. (Of a plant) blooming or producing a crop more than once a season.

 

Example:

"The bush had lush, remontant flowers."

"Sharron wanted to plant remontant bushes in hopes of winning Yard of the Month."

 

About Remontant

This word stems from the French verb “remonter,” which translates to “coming up again.”

 

Did You Know?

Remontant hydrangeas have two distinct periods of growth that produce flowers. The first flush of growth occurs on “old wood,” or last year’s stems. The second flush begins in late summer or early autumn on “new wood,” the newest stems. In the southeastern United States, these hydrangeas experience their first flush in late May or early June and their second sometime in September.

 

[DarkRavie]

What's the Word: MONOPSONY

pronunciation: [mə-NAHP-sə-nee]

 

Part of speech: noun

Origin: Greek, 1930s

 

Meaning: 

1. (Economics) A market situation in which there is only one buyer.

 

Example:

"The conglomerate used questionable tactics to create this monopsony."

"Is Amazon a monopsony in the goods market?"

 

About Monopsony

This word stems from the Greek suffix “mono-” meaning “one” and the Greek “opsōnein,” meaning “buy provisions.”

 

Did You Know?

“Monopsony” can be easily mistaken with “monopoly,” but they have somewhat inverse definitions. While a “monopsony” is a market situation in which there is only one buyer of a good or service, a “monopoly” is a situation in which there is only one producer of a good or service. Economic theory proposes that monopsonies can lead to lower wages for workers because they are paid less than their marginal revenue product.

 

[DarkRavie]

What's the Word: BIENNIAL

pronunciation: [bi-EN-ee-əl]

 

Part of speech: adjective

Origin: Latin, 17th century

 

Meaning: 

1. Taking place every other year.

2. (especially of a plant) Living or lasting for two years.

 

Example:

"The art museum holds a biennial reception for the members."

"I don’t want to plant every year, so I try to choose biennial landscaping."

 

About Biennial

“Biennial” is based on the Latin term “biennis,” which combines “bi-,” meaning two, and “annus,” meaning “year.”

 

Did You Know?

In the contemporary art world, “biennial” describes art exhibitions that occur every two years. The tradition started with the Venice Biennale, founded in 1895. Today, “biennales” — Italian for “biennials” — refer to a series of major art shows that take place every two years in cities including New York City, Shanghai, Moscow, Vancouver, Jakarta, Havana, and Adelaide.

 

[DarkRavie]

What's the Word: ENDUE

pronunciation: [en-DOO]

 

Part of speech: verb

Origin: Middle English, 15th century

 

Meaning: 

1. Endow or provide with a quality or ability.

 

Example:

"Max was endued with incredible compassion for his friends’ problems."

"If I’d been endued with a better sense of direction, I wouldn’t be lost right now."

 

About Endue

“Endue” is related to the Latin “indūcĕre,” from “in-” meaning “into” and “dūcĕre,” meaning “lead.” The word is closely related to “induce,” based on the same Latin root.

 

Did You Know?

“Endue” is very similar to “endow,” and the two share nearly identical contemporary definitions. However, the two words are based on different Latin roots. “Endue” is from the Latin “indūcĕre,” with the idea of a person being led into certain qualities or abilities. “Endow” is based on the Latin root “dōtāre,” meaning “dowry.” In the 16th century, “endow” originally meant to bestow a dowry upon a woman.