fructuous

Pronounced: FREK-chuh-wuhs, adj

Notes: I didn’t get this word right; you may know it

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Yesterday’s word

The word magpie means

• any of various birds, typically having a long tail and black-and-white plumage (also used of other birds that resemble a magpie)
• a chatterer
• a person who indiscriminately collects things (especially things of little value)

First usage

Our word came into English in the late 1500s

Background / Comments

I knew of the bird definition; I also knew of the collector meaning (a more widely used synonym is “packrat”); however, the second meaning was unknown to me. Both the second and third meanings came about because of a supposed reputation of magpies for chattering and for hoarding. Our word actually comes from Mag (short for Margaret) combined with pie, which came from the Latin word pica (magpie). I’ve no idea why Margaret was used (perhaps is was a very common name when the word was being formed)…the idea was the stereotypical notion that women chatter. Thus the name came to be attached to the bird; it had a reputation as a chatterer, and thus the second meaning came into being – seems rather like circular reasoning to me.