Pronounced: uh-NAH-buh-suhs, noun
Notes: Even after attempting to analyze this word, I didn’t have any idea of the meaning
Yesterday’s word
The word roland means “someone who is an equal match for another”.
First usage
The word came into English in 1525
Background / Comments
Our word comes from the proper name Roland, who was the legendary hero of an epic poem, Song of Roland, which dates back to the 1000-1100s. The tale was inspired by Charlemagne’s nephew. Roland had a good friend, Oliver, and they were equals – they fought each each other, but neither one. Technically, my encounter with the word was not our word; I encountered the upper case word ‘Roland’. I ran across the word in the writings of Dorothy Sayers; it described a couple of men as ‘Roland and Oliver’.
Richard's Vocabulary Word-of-the-Day 