Author Archives: Richard

Pronounced: BAY-zuh-lekt (alt: BAY-suh-lect; BAZ-uh-lekt; BAS-uh-lekt), noun Notes: I didn’t know this word, but some of the information about it irritated me Yesterday’s word The word nobby means “cleverly stylish; chic; smart” First usage Our word came into English in the late 1700s Background / Comments Our word sounds like “knobby” (having knobs), but clearlyContinue reading “basilect”

Pronounced: NAH-bee, adj Notes: I thought I recognized part of this word, but I didn’t know the meaning Yesterday’s word The word endonym is “a named used internally to refer to a place, people, language, etc” First usage Our word came into English in the 1970s Background / Comments An example may be useful here:Continue reading “nobby”

Pronounced: EN-duh-nihm, noun Notes: I recognized part of the word, but it did not help with the definition Yesterday’s word The word asseverate means “to affirm or declare positively or earnestly” First usage Our word came into English in the late 1700s Background / Comments Our word is not heard much today; it’s a niceContinue reading “endonym”

Pronounced: uh-SEH-vuh-rate, verb Notes: I didn’t know the meaning, but after I saw it, it made sense Yesterday’s word The word snark means, as a verb, “to make a snide remark”. As a noun, it is a mysterious, imaginary animal something or someone hard to track down a snide remark First usage There are multipleContinue reading “asseverate”

Pronounced: (as it looks), noun/verb Notes: I know the adjectival form of the word; I didn’t know that this was a word Yesterday’s word The word indurate means “physically or morally hardened” First usage Our word came into English in the late 1300s Background / Comments Interesting… the original reference only gave one pronunciation, butContinue reading “snark”

Pronounced: IN-duh-ruht, adj Notes: This word is vaguely familiar to me (but I could not properly define it) Yesterday’s word The word Bigfoot means, as a noun, “a prominent person in a commanding position – especially a journalist”. As a verb, it means to dominate or to take control of a situation from someone toContinue reading “indurate”

Pronounced: BIG-foot, noun/verb Notes: Not the legendary creature Yesterday’s word The word catachresis means use of the wrong word for the context use of a forced and especially paradoxical figure of speech First usage Our word came into English in the mid-1500s Background / Comments A handy word to know for using the wrong wordContinue reading “Bigfoot”

Pronounced: ka-tuh-KREE-suhs, noun Notes: A neat word that could be used in some situations Yesterday’s word The word bunyip means, as a noun, “an impostor”. As an adjective, it means “counterfeit; phony” First usage Our word came into English in the mid-1800s Background / Comments Our word came from Australia; specifically, an Aboriginal legend: theContinue reading “catachresis”

Pronounced: BUN-yip, noun/adj Notes: Another word that is a complete stranger to me Yesterday’s word The word volplane means “to glide in or as if in an airplane” First usage Our word came into English in the 1900s (1900-1909) Background / Comments Our word came from French; in the 1800s, they used the term volContinue reading “bunyip”

Pronounced: VOL-plane, verb Notes: I didn’t quite know this word Yesterday’s word The word scamander means “to take a winding course” First usage Our word came into English in the mid-1800s Background / Comments A useful word to drop in where appropriate – it is named after the Scamander river in Turkey, which was namedContinue reading “volplane”