Pronounced: rih-FRAK-tree (alt: rih-FRAK-tuh-ree), adj
Notes: I thought this was related to the refraction of light (I was wrong)
Yesterday’s word
The word girn means, as a verb, “to snarl, grimace, or complain”. As a noun, it means “a grimace or snarl”
First usage
Our word came into English in the mid-1400s
Background / Comments
I said yesterday that it looked like a misspelling of “grin” and, as it turns out, that it does come from transposition of the letters “r” and “i” in “grin” — the definition is different from “grin”, but it comes from the Old English word grennian (to show teeth).
Richard's Vocabulary Word-of-the-Day 