scofflaw

Pronounced: SKAFF-law, noun

Notes: An interesting word — you may know the meaning

Yesterday’s word

The word widdershins means a counterclockwise (anticlockwise in the UK), left-handed, or wrong direction. It is also spelled withershins, which seems to be the original version.

First usage

The word goes back to the early 1500s

Background / Comments

The word comes from Old High Gernam widar (back, against) with sin (direction). I’ve read the word in one or more of the Lord Peter Wimsey stories by Dorothy Sayers. In at least one story, it is mentioned that it is considered unlucky to go around a church widdershins. Apparently, the old tradition was that is was bad luck to go around a person or any building widdershins; however, going around a church widdershins was especially unlucky. Apparently, this superstition is not very widely held these days.

widdershins

Pronounced: WID-uhr-shins, adv

Notes: I ran into this word years ago in a book by Dorothy Sayers; I find this a fun word, if not much used these days.

Yesterday’s word

The word frumious means “very angry”

First usage

This word came into being in the mid-1800s

Background / Comments

The word was coined by Lewis Carroll in the poem “Jabberwocky” in the book Through the Looking-Glass. It is a combination of “fuming” and “furious”.

frumious

Pronounced: FROO-mih-us, adj

Notes: I think many people, especially if they have read classic books, have probably run across this word

Yesterday’s word

The word Demogorgon is “a mysterious spirit or deity often explained as a primeval creator god who antedates the gods of Greek mythology”

First usage

This word showed up in the late 1500s

Background / Comments

This word (name) is not seen as much these days, but it was popular in Renaissance writings: it appears in Edmund Spencer’s The Faerie Queen; in Paradise Lost by John Milton; and in Christopher Marlow’s play Doctor Faustus. The usage these days tends to be pretty generic – it describes something that is bizarre or monstrous. The origin of the word (name) is uncertain, but it did appear in a work in the 1300s describing the genealogy of ancient mythological deities.

Demogorgon

Pronounced: dee-muh-GORE-guhn, noun

Notes: This is late due to a scheduling error. I’ve never seen this word

Yesterday’s word

A ceilidh is “a social gathering, typically involving folk music, dancing, and storytelling”

First Usage

This word showed up in the late 1800s

Background / Comments

If you know the word, you probably know its origin from Scottish Gaelic ceilidh (visit)

ceilidh

Pronounced: KAY-lee, noun

Notes: Notice the pronunciation; not what one would think from the spelling

Yesterday’s word

The word dithyramb is

  • a usually short peom in an inspired wild irregular strain
  • a statement or writing in an exalted or enthusiastic vein
First Usage

The word came into English in the late 1500s

Background / Comments

The word has its origins in ancient Greek festivals in honor of the wine god Dionysus (also known as Bacchus). These festivals consisted of processions, feasts, dances, and dramatic performances, accompanied by poems recited or sung in the god’s honor. Perhaps not surprisingly, the poems tended to be wild, irregular, and dissonant. The Greek word to describe a poem in honor of Dionysus was dithyrambos (no other information is available).

dithyramb

Pronounced: DIH-thih-ram(b), noun

Notes: Another word I’ve never run across as far as I know

Yesterday’s word

The word droog means “a member of a gang; a henchman”

First usage

This word was coined in the early 1960s

Background / Comments

The word was coined by Anthony Burgess in A Clockwork Orange – it is based upon the Russian word drug (friend).

droog

Pronounced: droog, noun

Notes: You may know this word; I didn’t

Yesterday’s word

The word rugose means

  • full of wrinkles
  • having the veinlets sunken and the spaces between elevated
First usage

This word came into English in the late 1600s

Background / Comments

This word came into English from the Latin word rugosus (wrinkled), which comes from ruga (wrinkle). The word corrugate also comes from this Latin root and originally meant “to form or shape into wrinkles or folds”. Other forms of our word are rugulose (finely wrinkled), a scientific term, and rugosity (the state of being full of wrinkles).

rugose

Pronounced: ROO-gohs, adj

Notes: An interesting word to know

Yesterday’s word

The word blate, as a verb, means “to babble; to cry” — as an adjective, it means “timid”

First usage

The verb goes back to the late 1800s; the adjective goes way back to 1000

Background / Comments

The verb form is thought to be an alteration of the word bleat, which used to rhyme with ‘great’ (an interesting side note is that bleat and blate are anagrams). The adjective form comes from the Scots word blate (timid, sheepish).

Rejected words

I knew of the word indissoluble (not able to dissolve; incapable of being broken). It turns out that dissoluble appeared first, with indissoluble following in less than a decade. The roots they comes from also give us dissolvable, and, yes, even indissolvable, although it is an archaic word as well as a rare one.

blate

Pronounced: blate, verb/adj

Notes: Such a simple word, but I didn’t know it

Yesterday’s word

The word crepitate means “to make a crackling sound: to make a series of short, sharp noises”

First usage

This word came into English twice; first in the early 1600s, and then in the mid-1800s (see below)

Background / Comments

This word comes from the Latin word crepitare (to crackle), and this is the meaning it has had since the mid-1800s. However, when it came into English the earlier time, it had the meaning “to pass gas; to break wind”. Strange, eh?

crepitate

Pronounced: KREH-puh-tate, verb

Notes: I don’t think I’ve every run across this word

Yesterday’s word

The word metathesis means

  • the transposition of letters, sounds, or syllables in a word
  • in chemistry, double decomposition
First usage

This word goes back to the mid-1500s

Background / Comments

It’s the first definition that I referred to yesterday. An example would be saying “aks” instead of “ask” (I remember having trouble with this as a child, and I still mangle words every now and then). The word came into English from Latin, but came into Latin from the Greek word metatithenai (to transpose), which is made up of meta- (among, after) and tithenai (to place).