Pronounced: NEW (alt: nyoo), int/noun
Notes: A short word I kind of knew, but not well
Yesterday’s word
The word causerie is
- an informal conversation; chat
- a short informal essay
First usage
Our word first appeared in English in the early 1800s
Background / Comments
I thought that our word should have three syllables (caw-suh-ree), so seeing the correct pronunciation was a surprise to me. Our word came from the French word causer (to chat), which came from the Latin word causa (cause; reason). The original meaning was an informal chat, but in the mid-1800s, a French literary critic published a column called Causeries du lundi (Monday chats). After that, the word came to also mean a brief, informal article.
Richard's Vocabulary Word-of-the-Day 