Pronounced: HACK-uhl, noun/verb
Notes: I didn’t know one of the noun meanings, nor did I know the verb meaning
Yesterday’s word
The word saccade means “a small rapid jerky movement of the eye especially as it jumps from fixation on one point to another (as in reading)”
First usage
Well, our word with the above definition came into English in the 1930s, but the word has been in English since the early 1700s (see Comments below)
Background / Comments
Our word came from the French word saccade (twitch, jerk); when it came into English in the early 1700s, it was used in horseback riding meaning a quick check using the reins. In France in the late 1800s, a French eye doctor used our word for the short jumps that a reader’s eyes make, but this meaning did not come into English until the 1930s.
Richard's Vocabulary Word-of-the-Day 