Author Archives: Richard

Pronounced: puh-TEM(P)-kuhn-VIH-lij, noun Notes: This word didn’t mean what I thought Yesterday’s word The word aischrolatreia means “excessive devotion to filth or obscenity” First usage Our word came into English in the 1910s Background / Comments As I noted yesterday, an unpleasant word. It came from the Greek word aischro- (shameful; ugly) and -latreia (worship).

Pronounced: eye-scroh-luh-TREE-uh, noun Notes: I didn’t know this word; it is rather unpleasant Yesterday’s word The word polyonymous means “having or known by various names” First usage Our word came into English in the late mid-1600s Background / Comments As I noted yesterday, I saw the Greek roots in this word: poly- (many) and -onymous,Continue reading “aischrolatreia”

Pronounced: pah-lee-AH-nuh-muhs, adj Notes: I didn’t know this word, but my guess was correct (that’s rare!) Yesterday’s word The word lithophone is “any of various musical instruments in which sound is produced by striking pieces of stone” First usage Our word came into English in the late 1800s Background / Comments You probably got theContinue reading “polyonymous”

Pronounced: LITH-uh-phone, noun Notes: If you guess at the meaning, you may be right Yesterday’s word The word extremophile is “an organism that lives under extreme environmental conditions (such as in a hot spring or ice cap)” First usage Our word came into English in the 1980s Background / Comments If you parsed the word,Continue reading “lithophone”

Pronounced: ik-STREE-muh-file (alt: ik-STREE-muh-fie-uhl), noun Notes: You may be able to guess the meaning Yesterday’s word The word Niagara is “an outpouring; a deluge” First usage Our word came into English around 1800 Background / Comments As you may guess, our word comes from the Niagara river, not the Niagara Falls (the Niagara river formsContinue reading “extremophile”

Pronounced: ny-AG-ruh (alt: ny-AG-uhr-uh), noun Notes: I was close on the meaning Yesterday’s word The word lèse-majesté is First usage Our word came into English in the mid- to late 1400s Background / Comments Our word is also spelled “lese majesty”; it came from Middle French, which came from the Latin phrase laesa majestas (injuredContinue reading “Niagara”

Pronounced: laze-MA-juh-stee, noun Notes: I think I’ve run across this word in reading, but I don’t know the meaning Yesterday’s word The word Rubicon is “a point of no return, one where an action taken commits a person irrevocably” First usage Our word came into English in the early 1600s Background / Comments As IContinue reading “lèse-majesté”

Pronounced: ROO-bih-kon, noun Notes: If you are good at history, you may know the meaning of this word Yesterday’s word The word zeugma is “the use of a word to modify or govern two or more words in such a way that it applies to each in a different sense” First usage Our word cameContinue reading “Rubicon”

Pronounced: ZUG-muh, noun Notes: An interesting tie-in with a Nobel Prize winner Yesterday’s word The word Klondike is “a rice source of something valuable” First usage Our word came into English in the late 1800s Background / Comments I knew of the Klondike gold rush, but didn’t know our word meant anything else. Our wordContinue reading “zeugma”

Pronounced: KLAN-dike, noun Notes: While I know about the Klondike region, there is another meaning that I didn’t know Yesterday’s word The word clerisy is “the artistic, social, or political vanguard or elite; intelligentsia” First usage Our word came into English in the early 1800s Background / Comments Our word was coined by Samuel TaylorContinue reading “Klondike”