Richard's Vocabulary Word-of-the-Day
Words that I do not know
Pronounced: MITH-rih-day-tiz-um, noun
Notes: I ran across this word while researching a recent word, and thought the background was interesting (and it gave me a laugh)
The word boscage is “a mass of trees or shrubs”
Our word came into English in the second half of the 1300s
Our word came from the Middle English boskage, which came from the Middle French word boscage.
Pronounced: BAHS-kij, noun
Notes: Not a cage for your boss…
The word tachyphylaxis means “successively decreased response to a drug or a toxin over time”
Our word came into English in the 1910s
As an avid reader of detective/crime/mystery stories, one of the good plots involves tachyphylaxis – the criminal will take gradually increasing amounts of some poison (arsenic, usually), and thus build up an immunity to what would be fatal dose to another person. He then shares a poisonous meal with the victim, who dies. If the source of poison is not known, the criminal can be fine and can say that it couldn’t have been in the meal, since he shared the meal and is fine. If the source of the poison is known, he can pretend to be ill himself, but he recovers. Our word comes from a combination of Greek words: tachy- (swift) and phylaxis (protection). People who take long-term prescriptions may run across the other side of the meaning: to get the same effect, they either need to take higher doses, or they need to change medicine.
Pronounced: tak-uh-fih-LACK-sis, noun
Notes: What a word! Some people might know this
The word crepitate means “to make a crackling sound; crackle”
A rare dual usage; our word came into English in the early 1600s but with a different (and now obsolete) meaning (see below); the meaning given above is from the mid-1800s.
Somehow, sitting in front of a “creptitating” fire doesn’t really have the same impact as sitting in front of a “crackling” fire. When our word first came into English in the 1600s, it meant “to fart”. Our word comes from the Latin word crepitātus, which is the past participle of crepitāre (to rattle; rustle; chatter; fart).
Pronounced: KREP-ih-tate, verb
Notes: Not at all what I thought
The word nephalism means “teetotalism; abstinence from alcohol”
Our word came into English in the mid-1800s
One who practices nephalism is a ‘nephalist’. I am a nephalist; given all of the problems caused by drinking and drunkenness, I think America would be better off if nephalism was more popular. People tend to imagine that they have better self-control than they actually do; I don’t know of anyone who deliberately becomes a drunkard. Then there are those that cannot stop drinking once they start. I think nephalism is a safer practice. There is a very active anti-tobacco lobby, even though the dangers from ‘secondhand smoke’ has been highly exaggerated. I wish this group would turn their attention to alcoholism instead of tobacco. Well, enough of that… our word comes the from the Greek word nephalios (sober).
Pronounced: NEE-fuh-liz-uhm, noun
Notes: I didn’t know this word, but I like it; it would be good to drop into conversation
The word opuscule means
Our word came into English in the mid-1600s
Our word comes from the Latin word opusculum, which is made up of opus (work) and -culum (a suffix denoting smallness). I have heard of opus, but with the emphasis on the first syllable (OH-puhs). Our word, with the emphasis on “puhs” just confused me and I didn’t see “opus” in the word. One of the things I thought was that it was some horrid medical condition.
Notes: My mind thought of several possible meanings; none of them correct.
Pronounced: oh-PUHS-kyool, noun
The word hurly-burly, as a noun, means “disorder; confusion; commotion; uproar”. As an adjective, it means “characterized by disorder, confusion, commotion, uproar”.
Our word came into English way back in the mid-1400s
I tend to confuse our word with ‘hurdy-gurdy’, which is a kind of musical instrument. Our word is thought to come from the a duplication of hurling, from the verb hurl (to toss). When there is disorder, confusion, etc, our senses seem to be tossed about.
Pronounced: HURL-ee-BURR-lee, noun/adj
Notes: This is one of those words I see and think I sort of know (and I’m close to the real meaning)
The word kef means “a state of drowsy contentment”
Our word came into English in the early 1800s
This is one of the words from the “not quite as well done” vocabulary list. I’m always checking words in this list with Internet sources. So, the definition I have above is what is said, and, on that basis, is quite a wonderful word. “Drowsy contentment” is what we’d all like to experience at the end of a hard day. It seemed like a great word to use… but then I checked online, and while it listed the definition above, it added “especially from marijuana, opium, or another narcotic”. So, I don’t feel as great about using it now. Our word comes from the Arabic word kaif (well-being; pleasure).
Pronounced: kafe (alt: kef), noun
Notes: A great word; I hope all of you have experienced it!
The word probative means “serving to test something or providing a proof”
Our word came into English in the mid-1400s
Our word comes from the Latin word probare (to test or prove), which comes from probus (upright, good) — this root word also give us the word “probity”.
Pronounced: PRO-buh-tiv (alt: PRAHB-uh-tiv), adj
Notes: This word might be what you think it is
The word obscurantism means
Our word came into English in the mid-1800s
Our word makes me think of obfuscation (making things hard to understand). There is, or has been an “obfuscated C code contest” in which programmers compete to make the simplest things look obscure and complicated. After writing the previous sentence, I looked it up and it is still an existing contest; it had its beginnings around 1984. More information can be found online. Anyway, our word comes either from the French word obscurantisme or the German word Obscurantismus. These come from the Latin word obscūrant-, which is a stem of obscūrāns, the present participle of obscūrāre (to darken).
Pronounced: uhb-SKYOOR-uhn-tiz-uhm (alt: ob-skyoo-RAN-tiz-uhm), noun
Notes: I was kind of close to the meaning, but not quite right
The word jobbery means “the use of a public office for private gain”
Our word came into English in the mid-1700s
I knew that “jobber” (from which our word comes) refers to someone who does odd jobs, but I wasn’t aware of the our word, whose origin is unknown.
Richard's Vocabulary Word-of-the-Day