Author Archives: Richard

Pronounced: tromp loi Notes: No credit for knowing the language this word comes from Yesterday’s word The word sedulous means involving or accomplished with careful perseverance diligent in application or pursuit Background The word traces back to the Latin se dolus, literally meaning “without guile”. The two words eventually merged into one, sedulo (sincerely, diligently),Continue reading “trompe l’oeil”

Pronounced: SEH-juh-luhs, adj Notes: I was off on this word; I associated it with something sinister or unpleasant, and that’s not at all the case for this word Yesterday’s word The word ullage means “the amount of liquid by which a container falls short of being full” – a pretty handy word. Background The wordContinue reading “sedulous”

Pronounced: UL-ihj, noun Notes: A nice, useful word that I did not know Yesterday’s word The word tarantism means “a dancing mania or malady of late medieval Europe” Background In the 1500s the town of Taranto in Italy was hit by a dance craze; people had a hysterical impulse to dance and was called “tarantism”.Continue reading “ullage”

Pronounced: TA-run-tih-zuhm, noun Notes: I didn’t know this word, but it is related to a word I have heard of Yesterday’s word The word Bluebeard refers to a marries and kills one wife after another Background As I noted yesterday, I knew the meaning of this word; it was the background that I didn’t know.Continue reading “tarantism”

Pronounced: BLUE-beard, noun Notes: I know the word, but the background was utterly new to me Yesterday’s word The word palinode means an ode or song recanting or retracting something in an earlier poem a formal retraction Background The story goes that Stesichorus, a Greek poet in the 6th century BC, was struck blind afterContinue reading “Bluebeard”

Pronounced: PAH-luh-node, noun Notes: I was thinking it might be related to “palliative”, but it isn’t. Yesterday’s word The word prosopopeia means “a figure of speech in which..” …an imaginary or absent person is represented as acting or speaking …an inanimate object or something abstract is represented as possessing human form; personification Background The wordContinue reading “palinode”

Pronounced: pruh-so-puh-PEE-uh (also spelled prosopopoeia) Notes: Quite a long word! Yesterday’s phrase The phrase scarlet pimpernel means, as one might guess, “a person who rescues others from mortal danger by smuggling them across a border”. Background/Notes The book The Scarlet Pimpernel came out in 1903 and was popular. English speakers began to use scarlet pimpernelContinue reading “prosopopeia”

Pronounced: SKAR-luht PIM-per-nuhl, noun Notes: I have read the book, The Scarlet Pimpernel, by Baroness Orczy, and I have seen the 1982 film (with Anthony Andrews & Jane Seymour) as well as the 1934 film (with Leslie Howard & Merle Oberon), but I had no idea that this was a word, which is why itContinue reading “scarlet pimpernel”

Pronounced: MUG-wump, noun Notes: I’ve run across this word, but couldn’t define it properly Yesterday’s word The word pinder refers to a peanut. Background/Notes This word, according to the dictionary I looked it up in, says that it is primarily used in South Carolina. The word itself comes from the Bantu language in Africa; theContinue reading “mugwump”

Pronounced: PIN-der, noun Notes: This is a word I’ve never heard (that I know of); I ran across it while reading the definition of another word Yesterday’s word The word hebetude means “lethargy, dullness”. Background This word comes from Late Latin hebetudo (dullness, bluntness). This derives from the Latin root hebes (dull). First usage TheContinue reading “pinder”