Pronounced: BOH-kay (alt: BOH-kuh), noun
Notes: I didn’t know that there was a word for this thing that most of us have seen
Yesterday’s word
The word panache means
- an ornamental tuft (such as feathers) especially on a helmet
- dash or flamboyance in style and action; verve
First usage
Our word came into English in the mid-1500s
Background / Comments
I knew the second definition; however, the first definition is the original meaning. The second meaning came about because it took a daring, flamboyant person to wear such a showy adornment in public. Our word is a variant of an earlier form – pennache – which came from Middle French, which came from the Italian word pennachio, which came from the Late Latin word pinnaculum. This Latin word is a word in its own standing, meaning “roof gable; peak”; however, it also means “little wing”, being a diminutive of pinna (wing).
Richard's Vocabulary Word-of-the-Day 