behoof

Pronounced: bih-HOOF, noun

Notes: I thought that this may be riding something with hooves (but no)

Yesterday’s word

The word serotonin meaning is hard to determine: I seem to be getting conflicting definitions: The original place I retrieved the word from says that our word is “a hormone that, like dopamine, heightens feelings of well-being, happiness, and euphoria”. However, dictionary.com says that it is a neurotransmitter “involved in sleep, depression, and memory” (and other things).

First usage

Our word came into English in the 1940s

Background / Comments

A complex definition… Our word comes from sero- (serum) and tone (a sound) and -in (suffix used to make nouns in chemistry). I’m not sure how “tone” fits into this definition; it was hard to get a good information about this word.

serotonin

Pronounced: ser-uh-TOE-nihn (alt: seer-uh-TOE-nihn), noun

Notes: I had just an approximate idea of the meaning. Do you know it?

Yesterday’s word

The word peregrination is “traveling place to place; also a course of travel, especially on foot”

First usage

Our word came into English in the late 1400s

Background / Comments

I have run across our word in reading, but I don’t remember anything about where it may have been. Rex Stout (the author of the Nero Wolfe books) often uses big words, but I don’t think it was one of those books. Our word came from the Latin word peregrinari (to travel abroad), which comes from peregrinus (foreign), which came from peregre (abroad), which is made up of per- (through) and ager (field; country).

peregrination

Pronounced: pear-ih-gruh-NAY-shun, noun

Notes: I think I’ve run across this word

Yesterday’s word

The word chancel means “the space about the altar of a church, usually enclosed, for the clergy and other officials”

First usage

Our word came into English around 1300

Background / Comments

As I noted, I’ve heard of a “chancel choir”; even with the definition of chancel, I’m not sure what that phrase means. Some churches seem to call their churches “chancel choirs”, but it doesn’t seem to have any particular meaning. Our word came from Middle English, which came from Middle French, which came from Late Latin cancellus (lattice, railing, or screen before the altar of a church).

chancel

Pronounced: CHAN-suhl (alt: CHAHN-suhl), noun

Notes: I’ve heard about a “chancel choir”, but that didn’t help my understanding

Yesterday’s word

The word brahmin is “a member of the upper class, having wealth, social status, and political power”

First usage

Our word came into English in the late 1400s

Background / Comments

Our word has roots in Hinduism… it came to us from the Sanskrit word brahmin (a member of the priestly class; the highest of the four classes), which came from Brahma, the creator of the universe in Hinduism.

brahmin

Pronounced: BRAH-min, noun

Notes: I didn’t know this word

Yesterday’s word

The word mistral is “a cold, dry, northerly wind common in southern France and neighboring regions”

First usage

Our word came into English around 1600

Background / Comments

The word came from Middle French, which came from Provençal, which came from Old Provençal word maistral, which came from the Latin word magistrālis. Years ago, I subscribed to Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine (EQMM) and one of the stories took place in the 1800s in trapping county and was about a mistral wind, but I thought it took place in Canada and not France (per the definition).

mistral

Pronounced: MISS-truhl (alt: mih-STRAHL), noun

Notes: I remember reading a short story that used this word, but the definition doesn’t exactly line up with the definition

Yesterday’s word

The word pundit means

  • a learned person
  • a person who offers commentary or judgments as an expert on a certain topic
First usage

Our word came into English in the mid-1600s

Background / Comments

The alternate spelling pandit was unknown to me. I have heard the “talk circuit” referred to (sarcastically, I thought) as “the pundit circuit”. So, I thought the word referred to a person who seemed to be an expert, or pretended to be one. This idea is pretty close to the second definition; the first one was unknown to me. Our word comes from the Hindi word pandit, which came from the Sanskrit word pandita (learned).

pundit

Pronounced: PUN-dit, noun

Notes: Also written pandit. I’ve run across the word, but wasn’t sure of the definition

Yesterday’s word

The work bibliophobe is someone who is afraid of books (or hates them or fears them)

First usage

I cannot find information about when this word entered English

Background / Comments

Our word was pretty easy to parse: biblio- (book) combined with -phobe (fear). I’ve run across the word bibliophile (a lover of books), but never our word.

bibliophobe

Pronounced: BIB-lee-uh-phobe, noun

Notes: Okay, this is (probably) an easy one, but I didn’t know this word existed

Yesterday’s word

The (long) word hemidemisemiquaver is a 64th note, which I don’t think one finds very often

First usage

Our word came into English in the mid-1800s

Background / Comments

According to what I’ve read, in the UK they use different names for musical notes that are used in America:

America UK
whole note semibreve
half note minim
quarter note crotchet
eighth note quaver
sixteenth note semiquaver
thirty-second note demisemiquaver

Once they get to quaver for the eighth note, different prefixes meaning “half” keep being added. The prefix semi- is Latin; demi- is French, and hemi- is Greek; thus, half of a half of a half of an eighth note is a 64th note. The word quaver comes from Middle English quaveren (to shake or tremble). In any event, most of the music I see doesn’t have anything smaller than a sixteenth note (semiquaver), but I do have a vague recollection of seeing 32nd notes in some work by Liszt or Chopin. Finally, if you noticed the semibreve in the list above and wondered if there is a breve, yes there is: the UK breve is a double whole note, and I don’t know the notation for that note, probably because of it’s rareness — you would need a time signature of 8/4 or equivalent (4/2 or 16/8).

hemidemisemiquaver

Pronounced: hem-ee-dem-ee-SEM-ee-kway-vuhr, noun

Notes: Some people with a certain background may get this immediately

Yesterday’s word

The word troth means

  • one’s word or promise, especially in engaging oneself to marry
  • faithfulness, fidelity, or loyalty
First usage

Our word came into English in the mid-1100s

Background

I have run across our word in the phrase “plight one’s troth”; by my recollection, it was pronounced the second way (with a long “o” sound). I knew from the context that it meant a promise to marry, but that didn’t help much with the meaning of just “troth”. It turns out that it comes from the Middle English word trowthe or trouthe, which is a variant of treuthe (truth), which comes from Old English trēowth. The Old Norse word tryggth (faith) comes from a common ancestor. Incidentally, in the phrase plight one’s troth, the word plight is an obsolete form of “pledge”, so the phrase means to pledge one’s faithfulness.

troth

Pronounced: trawth (alt: trohth), noun

Notes: I’ve run across this word, but didn’t quite know the meaning

Yesterday’s word

The word dermatoglyphics means

  • the ridge patterns of skin on the inner surface of the hands and feet
  • the scientific study of these skin patterns
First usage

Our word came into English in the 1920s

Background / Comments

Did you spot what was unusual about our word? It has no repeated letters; in fact, this is one of the longest such word (‘uncopyrightable’ is another word; it is the same length as our word). You probably recognized “derma” as relating to the skin. In fact, a Dr Harold Cummins coined this word from the Greek word dermato- (skin) and glyphein (to carve).