This is an example of the kind of entries I do. I chose this entry because the background information was particularly interesting to me.
I’d appreciate feedback on the layout; I have a lot more options for formatting here than I have on Facebook.
Pronounced: rih-zis-TEN-shul-iz-um
Type of speech: noun
Comment: This word is hard to take seriously, but many workers firmly believe in it (that’s all I’ll say until I give the definition tomorrow).
Yesterday’s word
The word bissextile year means “a leap year”.
Background
This word has an interesting history: When Julius Caesar reformed the calendar, he added a day to February every four years (as we still do); however, he added it after the 24th day of February. In the Roman system, the days toward the end of the month were reckoned by counting backward from the first of the following month. In addition, the Romans counted both beginning and ending days. Thus, the 24th of February was six days before 01 March, and was thus known as ‘sextus’ (sixth day). In leap year, there was a second ‘sextus’, or ‘bissextus’… and thus our word, even though we today have the extra day at the end of February, making the origin odd.
Usage
This word came into English in the late 1500s.
Richard's Vocabulary Word-of-the-Day 