capitano

Pronounced: kap-uh-TAH-no

Notes: I guessed some kind of Spanish-English (“Spanglish”) word for “captain” (but that’s not right)

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Yesterday’s word

The word recusant means “refusing to submit to authority”

Background / Comments

This word goes back to Henry VIII — he separated from the Roman Catholic Church in the mid-1500s and created the Church of England, with himself as the head of it. By law, everyone had to attend services of the Church of England. Our word originally meant specifically “refusing to attend the services of the Church of England”, but after around 100 years, the meaning broadened to mean resistance to authority in any form. The word comes from the Latin verb recusare (reject or oppose).

First usage

The word has been around since the early 1600s.