Pronounced: a-per-SUE, noun
Notes: I thought I’d previously used this word, but apparently not
Yesterday’s word
The word loblolly means
- a thick gruel
- mire; mudhole
- an assistant to a ship’s surgeon
- a pine tree with long needles and strong wood
- an evergreen – loblolly-bay
First usage
Our word came into English in the late 1500s
Background / Comments
A pretty bewildering set of definitions, isn’t it? As strange as it may seem, they are all related to the origin, which came from lob (an onomatopoeic word representing the bubbling sound of something boiling) combined with lolly (an English dialectal word for broth or soup). Thus, we can see that the first definition is the bubbling sound that porridge or oatmeal may make while boiling. In the same way, some mudholes have the consistency of porridge. How about the surgeon’s assistant? He was usually the one who fed the doctor’s patience. The final two definitions came from the fact that these trees are usually found in swap lands.
Richard's Vocabulary Word-of-the-Day 