New Game: What's the Word?

[DarkRavie]

What's the Word: NIDIFICATION

pronunciation: [NID-ə-fe-keh-shən]

 

Part of speech: noun
Origin: Latin, 17th century

 

Meaning:
1. Nest-building.

 

Example:

"My newlywed sister and her husband were so busy with nidification that they skipped almost every invitation for a year."

"From my porch, I can watch the nidification each spring as birds and squirrels begin their nests."

 

About Nidification

“Nidification” is taken from the same word in Latin, meaning “building a nest.”

 

Did you Know?

The secret to nidification isn’t just gathering nest-making materials — the quality of the materials is crucial, too. Nidification is a process of finding the best-quality materials (such as twigs and dry leaves), then weaving them together. Whether they’re making a “cup nest” (a common bowl-style bird’s nest) or an “adherent” nest attached to the side of a building, birds work hard to make their nests into solid and reliable living spaces. During nidification, birds use their beaks to interlace and move nest materials around, and some species use mud, sap, and saliva as glue.

 

[DarkRavie]

What's the Word: RUTHFUL

pronunciation: [ROOTH-fəl]

 

Part of speech: adjective
Origin: English, 13th century

 

Meaning:
1. Full of sorrow; sorrowful; woeful; rueful.

2. Full of ruth or pity; merciful; compassionate.

 

Example:

"Even though our Great Dane is a pampered creature, my husband always gets ruthful when the dog whines at not being allowed to sleep in our bed."

"My grandfather was a ruthful man who took great pride in helping neighbors during their times of need."

 

About Ruthful

“Ruthful” was formed within English, based on the word “ruth,” an early term for compassion or sadness at the suffering of others.

 

Did you Know?

Most people are more familiar with the opposite of “ruthful” — “ruthless” — but both are based on the early Middle English word “ruth,” describing sadness for the suffering of others, or compassion. (In Middle English, “ruth” had dozens of spellings, from “rauþe” to “ræuðe” to “reuþthe” to the more recognizable “ruith” and “reweth.”) To be ruthful, therefore, is to have so much compassion — “ruth” — that one is filled with sorrow at the sufferings of others. By contrast, to be “ruthless” is to act without any sorrow for others’ pain and suffering.

 

[DarkRavie]

What's the Word: HILLOCK

pronunciation: [HIL-ək]

 

Part of speech: noun
Origin: Middle English, 14th century

 

Meaning:
1. A small hill or mound.

 

Example:

"As we drew closer to it, what first appeared to be a minor hillock revealed itself to be a far more significant peak."

"Our farmland includes a hillock that’s always popular with our goats, who like to find the highest point to view their surroundings."

 

About Hillock

“Hillock” was formed in Middle English from the existing word “hill” and the Middle-English diminutive suffix “-ock,” suggesting a smaller hill.

 

Did you Know?

A hillock — also known as a “knoll” — is a small hill that stands on its own, disconnected from other hills or mountains. Hillocks appear worldwide, but the specific geographies of the U.K. and China mean hillocks are common in both countries. Though they can be described as minor versions of mesas and buttes, both of which are common in the United States, hillocks tend to be less rocky or craggy than mesas and buttes, and instead are often covered in grass, trees, and other greenery.

 

[DarkRavie]

What's the Word: APOLLONIAN

pronunciation: [ap-ə-LOH-nee-ən]

 

Part of speech: adjective
Origin: Greek, 17th century

 

Meaning:
1. (Greek mythology) Relating to the god Apollo.

2. Relating to the rational, ordered, and self-disciplined aspects of human nature.

 

Example:

"Our roommate Brad had Apollonian tendencies toward keeping our house well ordered and harmonious."

"Former Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Elliot Trudeau, father of Canada’s current Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, was known for his Apollonian slogan, “Reason over passion.”"

 

About Apollonian

“Apollonian” refers to the ancient Greek god Apollo, the god of the sun who was associated with reason and logic.

 

Did you Know?

“Apollonian” is often paired with its opposite, “Dionysian,” to describe a binary between rational, well-ordered impulses and more chaotic, emotional impulses. While “Apollonian” is named for Apollo, the ancient Greek solar god known for reason and logic, “Dionysian” refers to the ancient Greek god Dionysus, the god of wine and celebration, who is associated with instinctual passions and heightened emotions. In his book “The Birth of Tragedy,” philosopher Friedrich Nietzche argued that drama — especially in its classic form of Greek tragedy — is created out of a merger between the two opposite instincts, pairing reason with irrationality, order with chaos, and logic with passion.

 

[DarkRavie]

What's the Word: CONSENTIENT

pronunciation: [kən-SEN-shənt]

 

Part of speech: adjective
Origin: Latin, 17th century

 

Meaning:
1. Of the same opinion in a matter; in agreement.

 

Example:

"We pitched the idea of a new hedge to our neighbors, and they were consentient."

"All passengers on the boat were consentient, so we decided to stop first at the barrier island before sailing to our final destination."

 

About Consentient

“Consentient” is based on the Latin “consentire,” which combines the prefix “con-” (meaning “together”) with “sentire” (meaning “feel”).

 

Did you Know?

“Consentient” bridges two common words — “consent” and “sentient” — yet its meaning is different from either. Though “consentient” is built on the same Latin root as “consent,” that word is largely used as a synonym for “permission” or “acceptance” in modern terms. Sometimes “consent” means “agreement,” as in “the defendant gave his consent to a police search,” but we rarely use “consent” to describe feelings. By contrast, “consentient” describes a situation where people are in agreement because they share similar feelings. In this way, “consentient” leans closer to “sentient” (“feeling”) than to “consent.”

 

[DarkRavie]

What's the Word: FACTITIOUS

pronunciation: [fak-TIH-shəs]

 

Part of speech: adjective
Origin: Latin, 17th century

 

Meaning:
1. Artificially created or developed.

 

Example:

"Outside the fun house, a factitious talking horse gave instructions to those about to enter."

"The restaurant’s dim lighting is factitious and helped by enormous shades that block out the sun."

 

About Factitious

“Factitious” is based on the Latin “facticius,” meaning “made by art.”

 

Did you Know?

The Latin root of “factitious” means “made by art” (or “artificial”). In this way it differs from the near-homonym “fictitious,” which is based on the Latin verb “fingō,” meaning “to deceive.” In the early days of modern chemistry, between the 17th and 19th centuries, the term “factitious air” was used to describe gases generated by human intervention. For example, the bubbles in fermenting beer occur as a result of mixing water, barley, and yeast. Even though such gas is naturally occurring, an early scientist might have believed each carbon-dioxide bubble contained factitious air created by human endeavor.

 

[DarkRavie]

What's the Word: KLUDGE

pronunciation: [kloodj]

 

Part of speech: verb
Origin: Invented word, 1960s

 

Meaning:
1. Use ill-assorted parts to make (something).

 

Example:

"The campers kludged a rickety lever and pulley system to carry buckets of water up from the river."

"The computer that ran the house lights was on the fritz, but Svend managed to kludge a repair, despite his minimal tech skills."

 

About Kludge

The root of “kludge” is unclear, but the word may be related to the German word “klug,” meaning “clever,” or the Danish term “kludder,” meaning “disorder.”

 

Did you Know?

The word “kludge” was popularized in the 1962 article “How to Design a Kludge,” published in the computing magazine “Datamation,” but that was not the birth of the term. The Oxford English Dictionary considers “kludge” an invented word based on the existing words “bodge” and “fudge,” but there are some potential etymological ties to German and Danish terms. “Kludge” is related to — but distinct from — the U.S. military slang word “kluge,” meaning “something that shouldn’t work but does.” Because “kludge” was associated with computing quite early on, that has become the most commonly used context for the term. Though “kludge” began life as a noun describing a solution cobbled together out of unlikely parts, today it is also used as a verb to describe the process of implementing a crude but functional solution.

 

[DarkRavie]

What's the Word: MARMOREAL

pronunciation: [mar-MOR-ee-əl]

 

Part of speech: adjective
Origin: Latin, 18th century

 

Meaning:
1. Made of or likened to marble.

 

Example:

"As the artists drew him, the model stood so still, he was practically marmoreal."

"Sarah doubted the contractor’s claim that his new application process would give her driveway asphalt a marmoreal appearance."

 

About Marmoreal

“Marmoreal” is based on the Latin “marmoreus,” meaning “like marble.”

 

Did you Know?

In recent years, the vogue for marble countertops and bathroom tiles has given rise to an industry of marmoreal building materials. These products are not real marble, but many buyers are just looking for a marmoreal appearance without the cost (and weight) of authentic marble. Some of these replacements might be other stones, such as quartz or granite, but the cheapest means of achieving a marmoreal aesthetic is the least durable: Peel-and-stick paper can give any flat surface a marble pattern.

 

[DarkRavie]

What's the Word: NOSISM

pronunciation: [nah-si-zəm]

 

Part of speech: noun
Origin: Latin, 19th century

 

Meaning:
1. The use of a first-person plural pronoun (such as “we”) instead of a first-person singular pronoun (such as “I”) to refer to oneself.

 

Example:

"We could tell our AirBnB host was a character from his use of nosism and the way he referred to the condo as “The Manor.”"

"These days, using what is called “the royal we” is so uncommon that anyone who lapses into nosism sounds affected."

 

About Nosism

“Nosism” was created by combining the Latin plural first-person pronoun “nōs” with the English suffix “-ism.”

 

Did you Know?

“Nosism” is the practice of using what is popularly called “the royal we,” or a single person’s use of a plural pronoun to describe themselves. (This is also known as “majestic plural.”) The practice has been associated with the English monarchy since the 12th-century rule of Henry II, who used the pronoun “we” to signify that because he ruled by divine right, he represented both himself and God simultaneously.

 

[DarkRavie]

What's the Word: TOCSIN

pronunciation: [TOK-sin]

 

Part of speech: noun
Origin: Old French, 16th century

 

Meaning:
1. An alarm bell or signal.

 

Example:

"We awoke every morning to the blaring tocsin of the alarm in our neighbor’s apartment."

"The flooding was the tocsin our county needed to take coastal erosion more seriously."

 

About Tocsin

“Tocsin” is based on the Old French “toquesain,” which combined the Old Occitan roots “tocar” (meaning “to strike”) and “senh” (meaning “bell”).

 

Did you Know?

In modern terms, a “tocsin” can refer to any kind of alarm, whether literal or figurative. Historically, though, a tocsin was specifically an alarm sounded by bells. Prior to modern communication, a tocsin could be used to warn residents of an entire city of important events. The word comes from Old French, so tocsins were notably sounded during the French Revolution, and then, during the Cold War of the 20th century, the “alert” implication of the term was applied in English-speaking countries to describe that era’s tensions and concerns.

 

[DarkRavie]

What's the Word: ALLUVIUM

pronunciation: [ə-LOO-vee-əm]

 

Part of speech: noun
Origin: Latin, 17th century

 

Meaning:
1. A deposit of clay, silt, sand, and gravel left by flowing streams in a river valley or delta, typically producing fertile soil.

 

Example:

"Thanks to a layer of alluvium covering the ground, the valley was easy to walk through."

"Soil full of alluvium makes a fantastic garden."

 

About Alluvium

“Alluvium” is based on the Latin “alluvius,” meaning “washed against.”

 

Did you Know?

Alluvial deposits are sediments that are moved around and left behind by rivers. Often, “alluvium” refers to existing deposits of silt, sand, clay, and gravel left long ago by water that no longer exists where it once did. But the sediments can also appear with seasonal shifting river currents, and be filled with nutrients. The nutrient-rich soil will be distributed to areas downstream by the river current.

 

[DarkRavie]

What's the Word: MULIEBRITY

pronunciation: [myoo-lee-EB-ri-tee]

 

Part of speech: noun
Origin: Latin, 16th century

 

Meaning:
1. Womanly qualities; womanhood.

 

Example:

"Women express muliebrity in many different ways, ranging from motherhood to paths at home, in the workplace, and in the public sphere."

"Eileen felt most at home in her muliebrity when she became a grandmother."

 

About Muliebrity

“Muliebrity” is based on the Latin “muliebritās,” meaning “womanliness.”

 

Did you Know?

“Muliebrity” is a way of describing womanhood, with roots stretching back to Latin, so it records a history of the way the Romans, and later English-speaking civilizations, thought of women. The Latin root “mulier” can mean either “woman” or “wife.” Such similarities exist in modern languages as well: The French word “femme” can mean both “woman” and “wife.” However, today, womanhood and womanly qualities are expressed across a spectrum of characteristics and experiences that span beyond matrimony.

 

[DarkRavie]

What's the Word: BUSKER

pronunciation: [BUS-kər]

 

Part of speech: noun
Origin: Spanish, 17th century

 

Meaning:
1. A person who performs music or other entertainment in the street or another public place for monetary donations.

 

Example:

"The busker outside the restaurant was playing a moving rendition of a Whitney Houston song."

"Shirish put himself through college by performing as a busker with his guitar outside the movie theater downtown."

 

About Busker

“Busker” is based on the verb “to busk,” meaning “to ask for money in exchange for entertaining the public in the street.” This term was likely based on the Spanish “buscar,” meaning “to seek,” or “to fetch.”

 

Did you Know?

Cities as disparate as Halifax, Dubai, San Diego, Tullamore, and Zagreb play host to busker festivals every year. Many of these claim to be “the world’s largest festival of buskers,” though none has been proven to be so. The buskers themselves are as creative as they are unpredictable. There are plenty of performances of live music, juggling, and magic, but there are deep variations on even those traditional ideas. People attending a busker festival might see someone juggling chainsaws and bowling balls, or musicians playing whimsical instruments (and non-instruments) in surprising ways.

 

[DarkRavie]

What's the Word: SATURNINE

pronunciation: [SAT-ər-nahyn]

 

Part of speech: adjective
Origin: Old French, 15th century

 

Meaning:
1. (Of a person or their manner) Slow and gloomy.

 

Example:

"While most characters in “Winnie-the-Pooh” are cheerful, Eeyore is saturnine."

"Poor weather at the beginning of my vacation put me in a saturnine mood."

 

About Saturnine

“Saturnine” is based on the Old French “Saturnin,” from the Latin “Saturninus,” meaning “of Saturn.”

 

Did you Know?

Saturn was the Roman god of time, wealth, and periodic renewal, among other things. From his name we get the December festival Saturnalia — a season of feasting, fun, and gift-giving. How is it, then, that a “saturnine” personality is gloomy and melancholic? In the Middle Ages, Saturn was believed to be the farthest planet from the sun, and therefore cold and desolate. Rather than the god Saturn, remembered with joyous celebrations of plenty, the planet Saturn was associated with gloom and darkness — the characteristic features of a saturnine personality.

 

[DarkRavie]

What's the Word: PROFICUOUS

pronunciation: [prə-FIK-yə-wəs]

 

Part of speech: adjective
Origin: Latin, 17th century

 

Meaning:
1. Useful or profitable.

 

Example:

"The gas station attendant’s proficuous directions helped us avoid the tolls."

"An emergency bag packed in your car trunk can be a proficuous source of aid in a crisis."

 

About Proficuous

“Proficuous” is based on the Latin “proficuus,” meaning “beneficial.”

 

Did you Know?

Social media has been a surprising repository for proficuous information in the form of users sharing “life hacks.” These tidbits of advice used to be shared from person to person and in practical magazines such as “Good Housekeeping” and “Popular Mechanics.” It was commonplace to cut out a clipping of a good recipe or a useful home gardening tip and share it with a neighbor, but now social media has turned the practice viral. Almost everyone who spends time on Facebook or TikTok has learned a proficuous life hack or two.

 

[DarkRavie]

What's the Word: EUSTRESS

pronunciation: [YOO-stres]

 

Part of speech: noun
Origin: English, 20th century

 

Meaning:
1. Moderate or normal psychological stress, interpreted as being beneficial.

 

Example:

"The challenge of my new job was stimulating and left me in a state of eustress."

"During my college days, I always thrived under the eustress of finals season."

 

About Eustress

“Eustress” was formed in English by adding the prefix “eu-” (meaning “good”) to the word “stress.”

 

Did you Know?

“Eustress” was a term coined in the 1960s by psychologists exploring the phenomenon of stress. Stress is often experienced as a negative state, so most people were already familiar with the term “distress,” suggesting discomfort, alarm, or suffering, often associated with the threat of danger. As a counterpoint, psychologists suggested the term “eustress” to describe a response to stress that is not distressing, but rather motivating and provoking happiness. For example, a world-class baseball pitcher taking the field in the World Series may well feel stress, but it is likely a stress associated with a task he feels capable of accomplishing to the best of his impressive ability. As a result, he feels eustress — excitement about and focus on what he is potentially about to accomplish — rather than distress.

 

[DarkRavie]

What's the Word: COMPRADOR

pronunciation: [kom-prə-DOR]

 

Part of speech: noun
Origin: Portuguese, 17th century

 

Meaning:
1. A person within a country who acts as an agent for foreign organizations engaged in investment, trade, or economic or political exploitation.

 

Example:

"Before we sold our house, we made arrangements with a comprador in Belize who helped organize our accommodations there."

"We wanted to expand the business overseas, but we had to hire a comprador to help us make sense of the European regulations first."

 

About Comprador

“Comprador” is taken from Portuguese, based on the roots “comprar” (meaning “to buy”) and the suffix “-dor” (meaning “agent”).

 

Did you Know?

In its earliest history, the term “comprador” was associated with Europe’s colonial era: A comprador was a local person in a colonized country who helped representatives of the colonizing European power make their way in a society that was foreign to them. That sense of the term has fallen away. Today a “comprador” is simply another word for “intermediary” or “middleman,” usually in a business venture. However, a comprador is more than a simple go-between, because in addition to connecting businesspeople and setting up deals, they also boast the skill of translating the language and culture of a foreign land.

 

[DarkRavie]

What's the Word: KLUDGE

pronunciation: [kloodj]

 

Part of speech: verb
Origin: Invented word, 1960s

 

Meaning:
1. Use ill-assorted parts to make (something).

 

Example:

"The campers kludged a rickety lever and pulley system to carry buckets of water up from the river."

"The computer that ran the house lights was on the fritz, but Svend managed to kludge a repair, despite his minimal tech skills."

 

About Kludge

The root of “kludge” is unclear, but the word may be related to the German word “klug,” meaning “clever,” or the Danish term “kludder,” meaning “disorder.”

 

Did you Know?

The word “kludge” was popularized in the 1962 article “How to Design a Kludge,” published in the computing magazine “Datamation,” but that was not the birth of the term. The Oxford English Dictionary considers “kludge” an invented word based on the existing words “bodge” and “fudge,” but there are some potential etymological ties to German and Danish terms. “Kludge” is related to — but distinct from — the U.S. military slang word “kluge,” meaning “something that shouldn’t work but does.” Because “kludge” was associated with computing quite early on, that has become the most commonly used context for the term. Though “kludge” began life as a noun describing a solution cobbled together out of unlikely parts, today it is also used as a verb to describe the process of implementing a crude but functional solution.

 

[DarkRavie]

What's the Word: VAGILE

pronunciation: [VAJ-əl]

 

Part of speech: adjective
Origin: Latin, early 20th century

 

Meaning:
1. (Biology) Free to move about.

 

Example:

"When they retired, my grandparents became vagile and spent winters in the South, springs in Europe, and summers and falls here at home."

"This river valley is on the flight path of many vagile birds, so we see many flocks land for the night during migration season."

 

About Vagile

“Vagile” is based on the Latin “vagus” (meaning “wandering”).

 

Did you Know?

In biology, a vagile organism is one that can adapt to changes in its environment, and often, this means an organism will change its location over time. The most visible vagile organisms are those that migrate to warmer climates in winter and return to cooler places in summer. Birds are known for their migratory habits, but other creatures including bats and insects also migrate seasonally. Monarch butterflies are legendarily vagile, flying as far as 3,000 miles to Mexico each fall from all across the North American continent.

 

[DarkRavie]

What's the Word: OPSIGAMY

pronunciation: [op-SIH-gə-mee]

 

Part of speech: noun
Origin: Greek, 19th century

 

Meaning:
1. Marriage at an old age.

 

Example:

"Opsigamy might be on the rise as older people are starting to use dating apps to find new partners later in life."

"Opsigamy once raised eyebrows, but it’s much more common now for people to wait to get married until they are older."

 

About Opsigamy

“Opsigamy” is formed by combining the ancient Greek “ὀψέ,” or “opsé” (meaning “late”) with the suffix “-gamy,” meaning “marriage.”

 

Did you Know?

When using a rare term such as “opsigamy,” getting married later in life sounds out of the ordinary. But in fact, the practice is already common, especially among celebrities. George Clooney was known for years as Hollywood’s most eligible bachelor, but he settled down to marry at 53. Barbra Streisand married her current husband when she was 56, and Harrison Ford married when he was 67. George Takei was even older when he wed his partner of 20 years at the age of 71, almost the moment same-sex marriage became legal in the United States.