luteous

Pronounced: LOO-tee-us, adj

Notes: Not a word I knew (and probably not one I can imagine using)

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Yesterday’s word

The word ultima is “the last syllable of a word”

First usage

Our word came into English in the 1910s

Background / Comments

I noted yesterday that our word took me back to college; in one language class, we learned about which syllable received the stress in pronunciation: it could be on the ultima, or on the “penult” – the next-to-last syllable (literally “almost or next to last”), or on the “antepenult” – the syllable before the penult (literally “before the penult”). Our word comes from the Latin word ultima, which is the feminine form of ultimus (farthest; last), which is a superlative form of ulter (situated beyond).