veridical

Pronounced: vuh-RIH-dih-kuhl, adj

Notes: It looked to me like it should have something to do with greenness or related to vertical (both of these are wrong)

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Yesterday’s word

The word fig, as a verb, means “to dress up”. As a noun, it means

• dress or array
• a gesture of contempt
• something of little value
• a tree of shrub of the genus “Ficus” (or its fruit)

First usage

The verb, and the first noun definition came into English in the mid-1800s. The other definition are earlier, coming into English in the early 1200s.

Background / Comments.

I had no idea that our word could refer to clothing. I certainly knew about the tree/fruit called a fig — I once lived at a place that had a fig tree in the back yard. Although it didn’t come to mind, I did know that it could refer to something of little value, as in “I don’t give a fig for your opinions”. The gesture of contempt was new to me as well. It’s not clear why the fig was considered so valueless as to be used for such a gesture, or the little worth of something. In any event, the last three meanings above came from the Old French word fige, which came from Provencal word figa, which came from the Latin word fica (fig; ficus).