Pronounced: where-WITH, adv/pronoun/conjunction
Notes: I am familiar with “wherewithal”, but not our word
Yesterday’s word
The word interlocutor is “one who takes part in dialogue or conversation”
First usage
Our word came into English in the early 1500s
Background / Comments
I have heard our word in old-time Jack Benny radio shows, and also in the film White Christmas (1954). In these usages, it comes from the minstrel show tradition, and refers to the man in the middle of a line of performers who banters with the end men. I was unaware of the more general definition of the word. Our word came from the Latin word interloqui (to speak between; to issue an interlocutory decree). [An interlocutory decree is a court judgment that comes in the middle of a case and is not decisive.] The Latin word is made up of inter- (between) and loqui (to speak).
Richard's Vocabulary Word-of-the-Day 