bovarism

Pronounced: BOH-vuh-riz-em, noun

Notes: Well-read people might know this one (I guess I’m not well-read enough; I didn’t)

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Yesterday’s word

The word garboil means “confusion”

First usage

Our word came into English in the mid-1500s

Background / Comments

This is another word that comes from a poorer-quality vocabulary. I almost didn’t use it because it is tagged as “archaic”, which I don’t think is fair… there are LOTS of archaic words in English, but I don’t expect things that advertise as “vocabulary words” to include words that are archaic or obsolete. I do like the word, but they should have chosen something else. Our word comes from the Middle French word garbouil, and into Middle French from the Old Italian word garbuglio. Source material indicates that the trail ends there.