Author Archives: Richard

Pronounced: LOAD-star, noun Notes: I’ve heard this word, but realized I could not define it very accurately Yesterday’s word The word grabble means “to feel and search for something with the hands; to grope; to scramble” First usage This word came into English in the late 1500s Background / Comments I thought our word wasContinue reading “lodestar”

Pronounced: GRAB-uhl, verb Notes: I was rather fuzzy on the definition of this word Yesterday’s word The word adolesce means “to reach of pass through adolescence” First usage In what was a surprise to me, this word goes back to the mid-1800s Background / Comments Our word, a verb, is a back-formation from the nounContinue reading “grabble”

Pronounced: ad-uh-LESS, verb Notes: You may be able to guess the meaning, but I didn’t know this word Yesterday’s word The word adret means “the side of a mountain that receives direct sunlight” First usage The word came into English in the 1930s Background / Comments I don’t do much mountain climbing (okay, none atContinue reading “adolesce”

Pronounced: ah-DRAY, noun Notes: I didn’t know this word Yesterday’s word The word allocute means “to make a formal speech, especially by a defendant after being found guilty and before being sentenced in a court” First usage This word came into English in the mid-1800s Background / Comments Our word came from allocution (a formalContinue reading “adret”

Pronounced: AH-luh-cute, verb Notes: Another word I don’t know Yesterday’s word The word verbicide is “the willful and intentional distortion of the original meaning of a word” First usage Our word came into English in the mid-1800s Background / Comments Our word comes from verb plus -icide (to kill). The word verb is from theContinue reading “allocute”

Pronounced: VUR-buh-side, noun Notes: I didn’t know this word, but have known instances of it Yesterday’s word The word politick means “to engage in (usually partisan) political activity” First usage This word came into English in the late 1800s Background / Comments I thought that our word was obsolete; we use politic and politics, andContinue reading “verbicide”

Pronounced: POL-ih-tick, verb Notes: You probably know this word; I’ll talk more about tomorrow Yesterday’s word The word meta means “of, or related to, a story, play, film or character that consciously references its own subject” First usage This may be the most recent word; the reference material says it came into usage in theContinue reading “politick”

Pronounced: MEH-tuh, adj Notes: The vocabulary reference I took this from says it is pronounced “MEE-tuh”; however, this particular reference seems to be riddled with errors; I’ve always heard it pronounced “MEH-tuh”. In addition, no web site I checked has it as “MEE-tuh”, so I think this is just another error. Yesterday’s word The wordContinue reading “meta”

Pronounced: ih-MAY-go (alt: ih-MAH-go), noun Notes: Interesting plural: imagines (ih-MAY-guh-neez); can also use the (expected) imagoes Yesterday’s word The word bel-esprit means “a person of great wit or intellect; a witty or clever person” First usage Our word came into English in the mid-1600s Background / Comments A nice word to use to as anContinue reading “imago”