Richard's Vocabulary Word-of-the-Day
Words that I do not know
Pronounced: KWING-kuhngks (alt: KWIN-kuhngks), noun
Notes: A neat word for something… it would be neat to find uses for this word
The word lateritious means “resembling, made of, or the color of bricks”
This word came into English in the mid-1600s
As I noted yesterday, I had no idea that there was a word for brick-colored. Our word comes from the Latin word later (brick).
Pronounced: lat-uh-RISH-uhs, adj
Notes: I didn’t know that there was a word for this
The word gynarchy means “government by women”
The word came into English in the late 1500s
Our word is a combination of the Greek word gynḗ (woman; female) and the suffix -archy (rule; government). The suffix -archy comes from Middle English and then Latin and then Greek.
Pronounced: JIN-er-kee (alt 1: GIE-ner-kee; alt 2: JIE-ner-kee), noun
Notes: You may be able to get this one
The word debunk means (as you probably know) “to expose the falseness of a claim, myth, belief, etc”
This word came into usage in the 1920s
The background is why our word was made my vocabulary posting. The prefix de- means “removal”, as in “declaw”. The word bunk means “humbug; nonsense”, thus, the root idea is “removing the nonsense”. James Randi was a famous debunker of paranormal and pseudo-scientific claims (although he disliked the term debunker). The word bunk is a shortened form of bunkum (which has the same reading). The word bunkum is also a shortening, or perhaps corruption of Buncombe, a county in North Carolina. In 1820, US Representative Felix Walker made a pointless speech in the US House. When he was urged to stop and get on with voting, he said that he had to make a speech “for Buncombe”, and thus the word came to mean meaningless speech. I find this background interesting.
Pronounced: di-BUNK, verb
Notes: Yes, you know this word. I’m adding it because I enjoyed the etymology of it
The word internecine means
Our word came into being in the mid-1600s
Our word comes from the Latin word internecīnus or internecīvus (murderous), also internecāre (to exterminate; to kill out), which is made up of inter- (together; among) and necāre (to kill).
Pronounced: in-ter-NEE-seen (alt 1: in-ter-NEE-sine; alt 2: in-ter-NESS-een; alt 3: in-ter-NESS-ine), adj
Notes: A lot of different pronunciations; I didn’t know this word
The word antitussive, as an adjective, means “suppressing of relieving coughing”. As a noun, it refers to “something that suppresses or relieves coughing”
This word came into English in the first decade of the 1900s
Our word makes me think of the cough medicine called Robitussin; I’m sure that the ‘tussin’ part of the name comes from the same root as our word. Our word comes from the Latin word anti- (against) and tussis (cough).
Pronounced: an-tee-TUSS-iv (alt: an-tie-TUSS-iv), adj/noun
Notes: I didn’t know this word, but the background was enlightening.
The word serotinal means “pertaining to or occurring in late summer”
Our word came into English in the late 1800s
It is a bit of a mystery how our word came to refer to summer: our word comes from Latin – the roots are sērō (late) plus tinus (the adjectival form of time) plus -al (having the form or character of). So, we have late and time… but why summer, and not (for example), winter?
Pronounced: sih-ROT-n-l (alt: ser-uh-TINE-l), adj
Notes: Another useful word that I didn’t know
The word locarnize means “to bring about peace or settle a disagreement by negotiation”
The word came into English in the 1920s
Our word is named after Locarno, Switzerland. In Oct 1925 the countries Germany, Belgium, France, Great Britain, and Italy met to settle post-World War One disputes. The Locarno treaties were concluded. This word came into being pretty rapidly after that meeting. I haven’t run across it; I don’t know if it is still in use or not, but I assume it is and I merely haven’t run across it.
Pronounced: LO-kuhr-nize, verb
Notes: A word I’ve not run across
The word rupestrine means “living or growing among rocks”
The word came into English in the late 1800s
Our word has Latin roots: rūpēs (steep cliff; crag) combined with the ending -trine which was take from lacustrine (living or growing in lakes).
Pronounced: roo-PESS-trin, adj
Notes: I could not figure out how to parse this word to get the definition
The word solesize means “to make an error in language, etiquette, etc”
This word came into usage in the mid-1600s
You may be familiar with the noun form – solecism. The noun form definitely rings a bell in my memory, but I’m not sure I could have come up with the correct definition. Our word comes from an ancient Athenian colony in Cilicia named “Soloi”. Apparently, they had a dialect that the Athenians considered to be substandard.
Pronounced: SOL-uh-size, verb
Notes: Another word I’ve run across, but I only picked up the general meaning
I had trouble in looking the up meaning of chambray: the place I got this word from says only that it is “a finely woven cloth (of cotton, silk, or linen) with an equal mix of white and colored threads”. With this definition, I was thinking of one white line, one colored line, and then another white line, and then a colored thread, and so on. However, in doing additional research, the additional clarification was that the weave has a colored warp (the part that doesn’t move on the loom; usually vertical), and a white weft – also known as “woof” or “fill” (the part that moves; usually horizontal).
The word came into English in the early 1800s
The word chambray is an Americanism – a corruption of the word cambric, name for the town of Cambrai in northern France.
Richard's Vocabulary Word-of-the-Day