Richard's Vocabulary Word-of-the-Day
Words that I do not know
Pronounced: GROUND-ling, noun
Notes: I don’t remember running across this word
The word hypogeusia is “a diminished sense of taste”
Our word came into English in the late 1800s
Our word came from the Greek words hypo- (under) and geusia (taste).
Pronounced: high-puh-GOO-zee-uh (alt1: high-puh-GYOO-zee-uh;
alt2: high-puh-GOO-zhee-uh; alt3: high-puh-GYOO-zhee-uh; alt4: high-puh-GOO-zhuh; alt5: high-puh-GYOO-zhuh), noun
Notes: Lots of variant pronunciations, but I didn’t know the word
The word hamartia is “a tragic flaw that brings down a hero”
Our word came into English in the late 1800s
I happen to know this word; our word came from the Greek word harmartia (fault; failure; sin), which came from the Greek verb hamartanein (to miss the mark). The Greek noun is found in the New Testament and is usually translated “sin”.
Pronounced: hah-mahr-TEE-uh, noun
Notes: This word was interesting to me
The word agathokakological means “made up of both good and evil”
Our word came into English in the mid-1800s
As I noted yesterday, I didn’t have any idea of the meaning; however, after I read the definition, I looked at the word again, and I could see the background. Our word came from the Greek words agathos (good) and kakos (bad).
Pronounced: ag-uh-thuh-kak-uh-LAHJ-uh-kuhl
Notes: I originally had no idea of the meaning of the word, but afterwards, it made sense to me
The word intercalate means
Our word came into English in the early 1600s
Our word came from the Latin prefix inter- (between; among) and the verb calāre (to proclaim; to announce). Intercalate was originally used to proclaim adding a day (or month) in some calendar. With our current calendar, we only intercalate a day every four years, but some early calendars added months. The early Roman calendars had ten months with a total of 304 days. That’s why “October”, “November”, and “December” start with the number IDs for eight, nine, and ten – in the early calendar, they were the 8th, 9th, and 10th months. It was a later ruler who intercalated January and February. Over time, the usage broadened toward the second definition above.
Pronounced: in-TUHR-kuh-late, verb
Notes: Interesting word
The word woodshed, as a noun, is
As a verb, it means
Our word came into English first as a noun in the mid-1700s, and then as a verb in the late 1800s.
Well, how many definitions did you know? I have heard woodshed used in five of the six definitions (all of the noun definitions, and all but the last of the verb definitions). Oddly enough, I associate one of the meetings with the 1954 film White Christmas. In the 2000 video about the film (White Christmas: A Look Back with Rosemary Clooney), Rosemary Clooney said that Bing Crosby used woodshed in the sense of practicing music. Also, our word is a pretty good example of how one can see the progress in the various definitions of a word. Clearly, the place for storing firewood was the original definition. I can imagine a parent wanting to discipline a child would take the child to the woodshed. That same idea of isolation would fit the idea of practicing music. Finally, the idea of practicing music would lead to coaching a witness (which would also tend to be done in an isolated session).
Pronounced: WOOD-shed, noun/verb
Notes: I could name only a few of the definitions
The word bolide is “a large meteor; especially on that explodes; fireball”
Our word came into English in the mid-1800s
A meteor that trails sparks can be called a bolide. Our word came from the French word bolide, which came from the Latin word bolis, which came from the Greek word bolis (missile; javelin), which came from the bolē (throw; stroke).
Pronounced: BOH-lide, noun
Notes: I don’t think I’ve run across this word
The word yarborough (sometimes spelled Yarborough) is “a weak hand in a card name; especially one in which no card is higher than a nine”
Our word came into English in the 1900s (1900-1910)
Our word is named after Charles Anderson Worsley; so where does Yarborough come from? He was the 2nd Earl of Yarborough. He supposedly bet 1000 to 1 against getting such a hand (mathematicians tell us that the actual odds are 1827 to 1, so his was either a relatively safe bet, or a foolish one).
Pronounced: YAHR-bur-oh (alt: YAHR-bur-uh), noun
Notes: I didn’t know this word, but some of you may
The word scarify means
Our word came into English in the first half of the 1400s
Our word came from the Middle English word scarifien, which came from the Middle French word scarifier, which came from the Late Latin word scarificare, which is an alteration of the Latin scariphare (scratch; to make scratches), which came from the Greek word skariphasthai (to sketch), which is a derivative of skariphos (stylus). Although I said yesterday that our word is not related to “scare”, it turns out that in the late 1700s, a homograph (scarify) was created by combing “scare” with “terrify”, so there is a meaning that DOES relate to “scare” — it means “to scare; to frighten”.
Pronounced: SKER-uh-fie, verb
Notes: Not related to “scare” (which is what I thought)
The word Laputan means “absurdly fanciful or impractical”
Our word came into English in the mid-1800s
If you have read Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift, published in 1726, you may know our word: it comes from a floating island in the book called “Laputa”. The residents of the island were absorbed with music, math, technology, and astronomy – so much so that they tended to ignore practical matters. Something interesting about the book: in the story, the people of Laputa discovered two moons of Mars; it was 150 years before the two moons Deimos and Phobos were discovered. In honor of the book, Deimos has a crater named “Swift”, and geographic places on Phobos are named after places in Gulliver’s Travels.
Pronounced: luh-PYOOT-n, adj
Notes: I didn’t know this word, but it made me think of another word, whose origin is the same as this word (quite odd, eh?)
The word tontine is “a joint financial arrangement whereby the participants contribute equally to a prize that is awarded entirely to the particpant who survives all the others”
Our word came into English in the mid-1700s
As I noted yesterday, I happen to know our word; tontine is used in at least one mystery story by Agatha Christie. Although no particular title springs to mind, I do remember the word, and the fact that it was defined that the death of one of a group increased the holdings of the others; I think it was in relation to an inheritance. Such a usage may or may not be correct. Anyway, our word came from the name of the man who created them – Lorenzo Tonti, a Neapolitan banker. In some places, tontines were banned due to the temptation for an evil member of a tontine to kill off their fellow investors.
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