auspicate

Pronounced: AW-spih-kate, verb

Notes: Another interesting word, but I could not define it

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Yesterday’s word

The word gastronome means “a connoisseur of good food”

First usage

The word started being used in the early 1800s

Background / Comments

I have mentioned before that I enjoy mystery stories, and the Nero Wolfe stories by Rex Stout are for me, enjoyable. Nero Wolfe fits our word perfectly; he is a brilliant detective, but doesn’t like to work. He enjoys fine good (a gastronome), and employs a full-time chef. His other interest is orchids, of which he has thousands on the penthouse rooftop of his house. Anyway, our word is a French word that came from gastronomie, which came from two Greek words: gastro- (stomach) and nomous (law); we could say that the root words mean “the stomach rules”.