wen

Pronounced: wen, noun

Notes: This is exactly how I pronounced “when”, but some people may distinguish between the “w” in this word and the “wh” in when — possibly using more air in the latter.

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Yesterday’s word

The word passim means “here and there”

First usage

This word came into English in the mid-1600s

Background / Comments

I had trouble finding ‘first usage’ information. The word is most often found in footnotes and reference material. For example: “item, pp 35-40 passim” means that item is discussed here and there in pages 35 to 40. However, the Latin phrase “sic passum” means “so throughout” and I would have loved to know this when reviewing documents. Many times, an error is made and continues throughout the document. Often times I (and other viewers) have noted the first few errors, and then written something like: “this error occurs throughout the document. Please search for and correct all of the errors”. Instead, I could have written, after the 3rd of 4th entry “sic passim”. The word is from the Latin word passus (scattered).