I haven’t made an entry for a few days; I had computer problems; I thought at first a hard drive had crashed, but now I’m not sure. In any event, the computer was unavailable.
lodestar
Pronounced: LOAD-star, noun
Notes: I’ve heard this word, but realized I could not define it very accurately
Yesterday’s word
The word grabble means “to feel and search for something with the hands; to grope; to scramble”
First usage
This word came into English in the late 1500s
Background / Comments
I thought our word was much newer than it actually is. It sounds a lot like “grapple” unless one is careful to distinguish between the “b” and “p” sounds, and in a quieter voice, they can be very hard to tell apart. Our word is just the verb grab with -le added – according to one source, the -le ending adds “a frequentative force” to the verb: that phrase is just a fancy one to mean that is repeats. The word grab comes from the Middle Dutch word grabben; the Dutch also have a “frequentative” word grabbelen.
grabble
Pronounced: GRAB-uhl, verb
Notes: I was rather fuzzy on the definition of this word
Yesterday’s word
The word adolesce means “to reach of pass through adolescence”
First usage
In what was a surprise to me, this word goes back to the mid-1800s
Background / Comments
Our word, a verb, is a back-formation from the noun adolescent. It comes from the Latin word adolescere (to grow up), which came from alere (to feed). I thought that this would be a word from the 1900s instead of the 1800s.
adolesce
Pronounced: ad-uh-LESS, verb
Notes: You may be able to guess the meaning, but I didn’t know this word
Yesterday’s word
The word adret means “the side of a mountain that receives direct sunlight”
First usage
The word came into English in the 1930s
Background / Comments
I don’t do much mountain climbing (okay, none at all), so that may be why I haven’t heard this word. It seems kind of a technical word. The word came from French, which came from the Provençal word adreit, which came from old Provençal word adreg/adret (good; suitable – as in the side of the mountain suitable for vineyards).
adret
Pronounced: ah-DRAY, noun
Notes: I didn’t know this word
Yesterday’s word
The word allocute means “to make a formal speech, especially by a defendant after being found guilty and before being sentenced in a court”
First usage
This word came into English in the mid-1800s
Background / Comments
Our word came from allocution (a formal speech), which comes from the Latin word allocution, which came from loqui (to speak).
allocute
Pronounced: AH-luh-cute, verb
Notes: Another word I don’t know
Yesterday’s word
The word verbicide is “the willful and intentional distortion of the original meaning of a word”
First usage
Our word came into English in the mid-1800s
Background / Comments
Our word comes from verb plus -icide (to kill). The word verb is from the Latin word verbum (verb).
verbicide
Pronounced: VUR-buh-side, noun
Notes: I didn’t know this word, but have known instances of it
Yesterday’s word
The word politick means “to engage in (usually partisan) political activity”
First usage
This word came into English in the late 1800s
Background / Comments
I thought that our word was obsolete; we use politic and politics, and our word looks like an old spelling. Our word is a verb and was created from the noun politicking, which came from politic (pragmatic; shrewd), which came from the Old French word politique (political). The Old French word came from the Latin word politicus (political), which came from the Greek work politikos (political), which is taken from the word polis (city).
politick
Pronounced: POL-ih-tick, verb
Notes: You probably know this word; I’ll talk more about tomorrow
Yesterday’s word
The word meta means “of, or related to, a story, play, film or character that consciously references its own subject”
First usage
This may be the most recent word; the reference material says it came into usage in the 2010s, but I thought I’d heard it before that time.
Background / Comments
Our word simply comes from the Greek prefix meta- (with). In Old English, it was mid (gives an interesting understand of “midwife”, eh?); in German, it is (was?) mit; in Gothic, it was mith.
meta
Pronounced: MEH-tuh, adj
Notes: The vocabulary reference I took this from says it is pronounced “MEE-tuh”; however, this particular reference seems to be riddled with errors; I’ve always heard it pronounced “MEH-tuh”. In addition, no web site I checked has it as “MEE-tuh”, so I think this is just another error.
Yesterday’s word
The word imago means
- the final or adult stage of an insect
- an idealized image of someone, formed in childhood and persisting in later life
First usage
This word came into English in the late 1700s
Background / Comments
I learned the stages of insect life as egg-larva-pupa-adult. Apparently, our word is starting to be used instead of “adult”. When I was checking the insect life stages to make sure I spelled them properly, I ran across one web site that used our word in place of “adult”. It is clear that the second definition has grown out of the first. My data doesn’t say, but I suspect it is a later definition. Anyway, our word comes from the Latin word imago (image).
imago
Pronounced: ih-MAY-go (alt: ih-MAH-go), noun
Notes: Interesting plural: imagines (ih-MAY-guh-neez); can also use the (expected) imagoes
Yesterday’s word
The word bel-esprit means “a person of great wit or intellect; a witty or clever person”
First usage
Our word came into English in the mid-1600s
Background / Comments
A nice word to use to as an alternate to “witty” or “clever”. It is, as you may think, a French word; in that language, bel-esprit means “fine mind; wittiness”. This word has an interesting plural: beaux-esprits.
Richard's Vocabulary Word-of-the-Day 