Laputan

Pronounced: luh-PYOOT-n, adj

Notes: I didn’t know this word, but it made me think of another word, whose origin is the same as this word (quite odd, eh?)

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Yesterday’s word

The word tontine is “a joint financial arrangement whereby the participants contribute equally to a prize that is awarded entirely to the particpant who survives all the others”

First usage

Our word came into English in the mid-1700s

Background / Comments

As I noted yesterday, I happen to know our word; tontine is used in at least one mystery story by Agatha Christie. Although no particular title springs to mind, I do remember the word, and the fact that it was defined that the death of one of a group increased the holdings of the others; I think it was in relation to an inheritance. Such a usage may or may not be correct. Anyway, our word came from the name of the man who created them – Lorenzo Tonti, a Neapolitan banker. In some places, tontines were banned due to the temptation for an evil member of a tontine to kill off their fellow investors.