Pronounced: dih-KAHKT, verb
Notes: I know “concoct”, but not this word
Yesterday’s word
The word mooncalf is
- a daydreamer or absent-minded person
- a fool or simpleton
- a congenitally deformed person
First usage
This word was first used in the mid-1500s
Background / Comments
In early times, it was believed that a misshapen birth was a result of the effects of the moon, and thus the third definition. Often such people were taken as simpletons, whether or not they were, and thus the definition spread to the second meaning. By extension, the first meaning came about, as a daydreamer or absent-minded person may appear to be a fool.
Richard's Vocabulary Word-of-the-Day 