Richard's Vocabulary Word-of-the-Day
Words that I do not know
Pronounced: bluhj, verb
Notes: I don’t mind not knowing this word, as it is not primarily used in this county.
The word pensive means “sadly thoughtful; wistful”
Our word came into English in the late 1300s
I thought of our word as “thoughtful”; I don’t really associate sadness with it. Our word came from the Old French word pensif (pensive), which came from penser (to think), which came from the Latin word pensare (ponder).
Pronounced: PEN-sihv, adj
Notes: I know the word, but I had the definition slightly wrong
The word argosy is
Our word came into English in the late 1500s
Looking at our word, I saw “argo” and thought of “Argo” (the ship on which Jason set sail to seek the Golden Fleece in Greek mythology). It seemed like the right origin, but it is not. Our word actually came from Ragusa, which is the Italian name for the city that is now called Dubrovnik in Croatia. In time, Ragusa became ragusea, a name for the laden merchant ships that sailed from that port in medieval days. Over time, the spelling changed and the meaning broadened, given us our word.
Pronounced: ARE-guh-see, noun
Notes: Not only did I not know the meaning, my guess at the origin was incorrect
The word bident is “a two-pronged implement, weapon, instrument, etc”
Our word came into English in the late 1600s
I should have known the meaning; I know the word “trident”, and our word is similar; it comes from the Latin word bidens (two-pronged), which is from bi- (two) and dens (tooth).
Pronounced: BY-duhnt, noun
Notes: I didn’t know what this word meant, but when I saw the definition, I thought I should have known
The word pellucid means
Our word came into English in the early 1600s
You may have recognized “lucid” in our word. Our word came from the Latin word per (through) and lucidus (lucid; clear). I know the word “translucent”, but our word is new to me.
Pronounced: puh-LOO-suhd, adj
Notes: You may know part of the word
The word basilect means “the least prestigious variety of a language”
Our word came into English in the 1960s
Our word came from the Latin words basis and dialectus (dialect). In discussing dialects, my reference data tried to insist that no dialect is “proper” based solely on grammar, but on social status. I don’t want to get into the discussion, but I thought the discussion I read was rather simplistic.
Pronounced: BAY-zuh-lekt (alt: BAY-suh-lect; BAZ-uh-lekt; BAS-uh-lekt), noun
Notes: I didn’t know this word, but some of the information about it irritated me
The word nobby means “cleverly stylish; chic; smart”
Our word came into English in the late 1700s
Our word sounds like “knobby” (having knobs), but clearly isn’t related. I have not run across our word, but I did know that “nob” is used in British English for one is a superior position in life. It turns out that our word is also British slang. The origin of “nob” is uncertain; some think it may be related to “noble” (I myself prefer this idea). Others think that “nob” was a slang word for “head”.
Pronounced: NAH-bee, adj
Notes: I thought I recognized part of this word, but I didn’t know the meaning
The word endonym is “a named used internally to refer to a place, people, language, etc”
Our word came into English in the 1970s
An example may be useful here: The endonym for Germany is “Deutschland” (because that is what Germans all their country). Our word came from the Greek word endo (inside; within) and -onym (word; name). As I noted yesterday, I recognized a part of our word — the “nym”.
Pronounced: EN-duh-nihm, noun
Notes: I recognized part of the word, but it did not help with the definition
The word asseverate means “to affirm or declare positively or earnestly”
Our word came into English in the late 1700s
Our word is not heard much today; it’s a nice fancy word for “to declare”. It came from the Latin words ad- (to; towards) and the verb severare, which is related to the adjective severus (serious; severe).
Pronounced: uh-SEH-vuh-rate, verb
Notes: I didn’t know the meaning, but after I saw it, it made sense
The word snark means, as a verb, “to make a snide remark”. As a noun, it is
There are multiple origins; one is from the mid-1800s, and the other is from the late 1800s.
As I noted, I was aware of the adjectival form (snarky – having a rudely critical tone or manner), usually heard as “I was rather snarky with the telemarketer” or “I made a few snarky comments”. The first two definitions above come from Lewis Carroll in his poem The Hunting of the Snark, which was published in 1876 – it didn’t take long for this word to enter English after the poem. When I was in Boy Scouts (long ago), scouts new to camping were often taken on “snipe” hunts; this exactly fits the first definition, so I wonder if “snipe” was somehow corrupted or altered from “snark”. The other meanings come from “snark” being imitative of snort or snore.
Pronounced: (as it looks), noun/verb
Notes: I know the adjectival form of the word; I didn’t know that this was a word
The word indurate means “physically or morally hardened”
Our word came into English in the late 1300s
Interesting… the original reference only gave one pronunciation, but when I did more research, I found six pronunciations, and none of those match the one I listed yesterday. Alternate (or possibly correct) pronunciations are: IN-do-rate, IN-dyou-rate, IN-do-rit, IN-dyoo-rit, in-DOOR-it, and in-DYOUR-it. Our word came from Middle English indurat, which came from the Latin word induratus, a past participle of indurare (to harden). We get “durable” from the same source.
Richard's Vocabulary Word-of-the-Day