Author Archives: Richard

Pronounced: SHA-tuh-land, noun Notes: I have heard this word and had a vague idea of the meaning, but there was a meaning I didn’t know Yesterday’s word The word zoonosis is “any disease that can be transmitted from animals to humans” First usage Our word came into English in the late mid-1800s Background / CommentsContinue reading “chatelaine”

Pronounced: zoh-AHN-uh-sis (alt: zoh-uh-NOH-sis) Notes: I’ve probably heard this word; I just don’t remember hearing it Yesterday’s word The word syllepsis means “the use of a word in the same grammatical relation to two different adjacent words in the context with one literal and the other metaphorical in sense” First usage Our word came intoContinue reading “zoonosis”

Pronounced: suh-LEP-suhs Notes: I have posted a similar word before Yesterday’s word The word topsy is “something growing without intention or direction” First usage Our word came into English in the late 1800s Background / Comments Quite a coincidence: I’m sure I’ve never run across our word, but the day after I wrote the entryContinue reading “syllepsis”

Pronounced: TOP-see Notes: I’ve never run across this word (but see tomorrow’s comments), but if you are sufficiently well-read, you may know it Yesterday’s word The word veridical means First usage Our word came into English in the mid-1600s Background / Comments As I noted yesterday, I saw the “ver” and thought “green”, and thenContinue reading “topsy”

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) Yesterday’s word The word fig, as a verb, means “to dress up”. As a noun, it means First usage The verb, and the first noun definition came into EnglishContinue reading “veridical”

Pronounced: (well, really! – as it sounds), noun/verb Notes: I know some of the definitions; some were unknown to me Yesterday’s word The word mantic means “of or relating to the faculty of divination; prophetic” First usage Our word came into English in the late 1500s Background / Comments As I noted yesterday, when IContinue reading “fig”

Pronounced: MAN-tick, adj Notes: I confused this word with another word Yesterday’s word The word birch, as a noun means As a verb, it means First usage Our word came into English around 700 Background / Comments As I noted, I know about birch trees, but I did not know that birch could be aContinue reading “mantic”

Pronounced: buhrch, noun/verb Notes: I know the noun, but the verb was new to me Yesterday’s word The word primogeniture is First usage Our word came into English in the early 1600s Background / Comments I could guess the first meaning by parsing our word. It came from the Late Latin word primogenitura, which isContinue reading “birch”

Pronounced: pry-moh-JEH-nuh-chur, noun Notes: I kind of knew this word; it’s related to a word I’ve never heard of Yesterday’s word The word palmary means “of supreme importance; outstanding; praiseworthy” First usage Our word came into English in the mid-1600s Background / Comments Our word came from the Latin word palmarius (deserving or carrying theContinue reading “primogeniture”

Pronounced: PAL-muh-ree, adj Notes: Not at all what I thought this word meant Yesterday’s word The word jabberwocky is “meaningless speech or writing” First usage Our word came into English in the 1900s (first decade of the 1900s) Background / Comments Like me, you probably know the poem “Jabberwocky” in Through the Looking Glass andContinue reading “palmary”