Pronounced: rod-uh-mon-tayed (alt: -tahd), noun/adj
Notes: I’ve run across this word in Rex Stout’s books with Nero Wolfe. Rex Stout had a very high IQ and often sprinkled the books with long words (such as this one)
Yesterday’s word
The word acerate means “needlelike”
First usage
Our word came into English in the mid-1800s
Background / Comments
Our word is another word whose meaning was misunderstood. It actually comes from the Latin word acerosus (full of chaff), but it was thought to comes from acus (needle) or acer (sharp), and this mistaking meaning is the one that stuck. It is a good word to have as an alternative to “needlelike”.
Richard's Vocabulary Word-of-the-Day 