Pronounced: FESS-tuh-nate, verb/adj (alt – for adj only: FESS-tuh-nit)
Notes: Not a word I recognized
Yesterday’s word
The word jactitation is “a tossing to and fro or jerking and twitching of the body”
First usage
Our word came into English in the mid-1600s
Background / Comments
Originally, our word had a legal meaning – it meant “a false claim or assertion being publicly thrown about to the detriment of another person”. The word jumped to the medical profession, where is has the meaning above (it is also spelled “jactation”). Our word came from the Latin word jactare (to throw).
Richard's Vocabulary Word-of-the-Day 