Pronounced: SCAR-uh-moosh, SCAR-uh-mooch, SKER-uh-moosh, SKER-uh-mooch, noun
Notes: Also spelled “scaramouche”
Yesterday’s word
The word antipode means
- the parts of the earth diametrically opposite
- the exact opposite or contrary
Background / Comments
The word is Greek; anti- (opposite) and the root pod (foot). The place from which I got this word claims that this word was first used to translate a Latin text into English. It was used to mean “men that have their feet against our feet”; that is, inhabitants on the opposite side of the world. Although this sense is no longer used, the idea of the other side of the globe is still used. The plural form (“antipodes”, an-TIH-puh-deez) refers to Austrailia and New Zealand; this was a British term because those countries are on the other side of the earth from Britain. Note that when I looked up the word online, it had a different (and later) origin: it claimed that “antipode” was a back-formation from “antipodes”. (I’m sticking with the former background).
First usage
There word goes back to the early 1400s
Richard's Vocabulary Word-of-the-Day 