abnegation

Pronounced: ab-nih-GAY-shun

Notes: I should have known this word; I’ve read it, but my understanding was off a bit.

Yesterday’s word

The word rowel means

• to goad with or as if with a pointed disk at the end of a spur
• vex, trouble

Background

If you’ve seen a Western movie, you’ve seen a rowel; the noun is the circular point-covered disk on the end of a spur that is used to urge the horse to greater speed. However, they weren’t invented by cowboys; knights in shining armor had them before 1100. The word came from Anglo-French roele (small wheel). It became a verb in the late 1500s for any process of prodding or goading that was as irritating as being poked in the side with a rowel.

First usage

The word goes back to the mid-1300s (as a noun); late 1500s for the verb.