adhocracy

Pronounced: ah-HAWK-ruh-see, noun

Notes: You might get close to the meaning… my reference shows two definitions, one more positive than the other

Yesterday’s word

The word argot means “an often more or less secret vocabulary and idiom peculiar to a particular group”

First usage

This word came into English in the mid-1800s

Background / Comments

This word came from France. Similar words are

  • jargon; it came from Middle English and meant “twittering of birds” and came there from Anglo-French. It’s usually used for specialized (possibly obscure or pretentious) vocabulary since the 1600s
  • lingo; it came from Latin lingua (language) and has been around since the early 1900s. One lawyer used this word to mean “court gibberish” (we call it “legalese”)

argot

Pronounced: AR-guht, noun

Notes: I have a vague memory that I’ve run across this word somewhere, but it didn’t help me with the definition

Yesterday’s word

The word arctophile is “someone who is very fond of teddy bears or collects them”

First usage

This word showed up in the 1970s

Background / Comments

The word is from Greek. I recognized the -phile (lover) part. The other part is from arctos (bear)… not (as I first thought) “arctic”.

arctophile

Pronounced: ARK-tuh-file, noun

Notes: I thought that maybe this was someone who liked the cold (but no)

Yesterday’s word

The word bouquiniste is “a dealer in secondhand books”

First usage

The word came into English in the mid-1800s

Background / Comments

This word is French, and was created in French in the mid-1700s to describe booksellers alone the river Seine. There was already a French word bouquin (used book) – from the Dutch boeckin (little book) – that described booksellers on the Pont Neuf bridge. They were banned from doing business on the bridge and set up their shops along the river. After this move, they were called bouquinistes. The word made its way into English, and I now have a fancy word for a used book store!

bouquiniste

Pronounced: boo-kee-NEEST, noun

Notes: Fancy word for something

Yesterday’s word

The word pinetum means “an arboretum of coniferous trees (such as pines)”

First usage

The word came into usage in the mid-1800s

Background / Comments

Where I grew up, we didn’t have an arboretum, but there was one area in which pine trees grew. My brothers and I enjoyed climbing up high enough in the trees to sway back and forth. The word comes from Latin pinetum (pine grove).

pinetum

Pronounced: pie-NEE-tuhm, noun

Notes: Your guess may be right

Yesterday’s word

The word autochthonous means

  • indigenous, native
  • formed or originating in the place where found
First usage

This word showed up in the late 1700s

Background / Comments

Our word in usually used in scientific and academic writings these days. In ancient Athens, their word for any trueborn Athenian was autochthon; from auto- (self) and chthon (earth).

autochthonous

Pronounced: aw-TAHK-thuh-nuhs, adj

Notes: I’ve run into this word someplace, but I couldn’t define it

Yesterday’s word

The word Hobbesian means

  • of or relating to Thomas Hobbes or his ideas
  • grim, selfish, unrestrained, etc
First usage

This word came into usage in the late 1700s

Background / Comments

This word was named after English philosopher and author Thomas Hobbes; in his book Leviathan, he displayed a grim, dog-eat-dog view of human nature.

Hobbesian

Pronounced: HOB-zee-uhn, adj

Notes: I associated this word with the Hobbes of Calvin and Hobbes and couldn’t come up with a definition (that’s because I was wrong)

Yesterday’s word

The word chiropteran means “bat (any of an order of night-flying mammals with forelimbs modified to form wings)”

First usage

This word came into English in the mid-1800s

Background / Comments

After reading the definition, I remembered chiroptera is the order for bats, and thus I should have known this word. Did you know that bats are the only mammal capable of true flight? (I didn’t). The word comes from the Greek words cheir (hand) and pteron (wing). The Greek word cheir is also part of the word “surgery”; the full Greek source is cheirourgos (doing by hand). The Greek word pteron, besides being used in the names of many flying insects, is the one of the ancestors of “helicopter” – from heliko (spiral) and pteron (wing). Now you can explain how “bat” is, etymologically speaking, related to both “helicopter” and “surgery”.

chiropteran

Pronounced: kigh-ROP-tuh-ruhn, noun

Notes: I should have known this word

Yesterday’s word

The word marivaudage means

  • an affected writing style
  • banter, especially of a flirtatious nature
First usage

The first usage comes goes back to the mid-1700s

Background / Comments

This word was named after a French novelist – Pierre de Marivau. He was known for the verbal preciousness of his romantic comedies.

marivaudage

Pronounced: mar-uh-VOH-dazh, noun

Notes: I didn’t know this word, but it isn’t one I think I used much

Yesterday’s word

The word deracinate means

  • to uproot
  • to remove or separate from a native environment or culture
  • to remove the racial of ethnic characteristics or influences from
First usage

This word came into English in the late 1500s

Background / Comments

Our word came from Middle French, and to there from the Latin word radix (root). The word originally referred to literal plant roots, but it quickly took on the metaphorical meaning or removing someone or something from its culture (or roots).

deracinate

Pronounced: dee-RA-suh-nate, adj

Notes: Fancy word for something more common

Yesterday’s word

The word ectogenous means “able to survive outside a host (as some bacteria and other parasites do)”

First usage

This word come into English in the late 1800s

Background / Comments

Another Greek word, from ecto- (outside) and -genous (producing)