pathography

Pronounced: puh-THOG-ruh-fee, noun

Notes: Not what I thought it was

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Yesterday’s word

The word usufruct is

• the legal right of using and enjoying the fruits or profits of something belonging to another
• the right to use or enjoy something

First usage

Our word came into English in the early to mid-1600s

Background / Comments

I wrote yesterday that we have “kind of” seen this word before because the word of the day for 18 Oct 2023 was fructuous (fruitful); in the comments, I happened to mention our word and its meaning. As these writings continue, it will become harder to remember if I have used a word before — especially since I get words from multiple sources. More than once, I caught one source repeating a word that I used from a different source. However, I cannot be sure that I have caught all such occurrences, or that I will catch them in the future. (Thus, one of these days, I’ll add a disclaimer to the “About” page). I ran across our word in the Rex Stout’s Nero Wolfe story The Rubber Band. I confess that this is another case in which I gleaned an idea of the meaning from the context and did not actually look up the word. Our word came originally from the Latin phrase usus et fructus (use and enjoyment), which was condensed to ususfructus, and from thence to English.