Richard's Vocabulary Word-of-the-Day
Words that I do not know
Pronounced: tahk-SAH-fuh-lite, noun
Notes: I know of at least one recent high-school graduate who should know this word… do you?
An unperson is “a person regarded as nonexistent”
This comes from George Orwell’s book “1984”; he coined this word as a noun. A much more common synonym is nonperson.
Although the verb form goes way back to the mid-1600s (meaning “to depersonalize”), it was first used as a noun in 1949.
Pronounced: UHN-puhr-suhn, noun
Notes: I thought that this word was a verb; nonetheless, I was close to the meaning (however, I did not know the background)
The word manqué means “short of or frustrated in the fulfillment of one’s aspirations or talents”
This word is usually used post-positively (that is, after the noun it is modifying): thus, a poet manqué, or (to hit closer to home), a software lead manqué. The word came directly from French, but ultimately from the Latin manco (having either hand crippled). Somewhere along the way, it picked up a bias against left-handed people: the Italian word mancino means “left-handed; dishonest”. There is a sprinkling of English words that show a bias against left-handed people: besides our word, sinister with its origin of “on the left hand” and awkward with its origin of “left-handed; turned the wrong way” are some other examples.
This word showed up in the early 1800s
Pronounced: mah(n)-KAY, adj (the ‘n’ is barely pronounced)
Notes: I wish I’d known this word; there are people I’ve met over the course of my life that this word fits well.
In addition to the usual plant/food meanings, the word cabbage can mean, as a noun:
As a verb, cabbage can mean:
(I don’t know about you, but I wouldn’t care for this word as a term of endearment, especially given the other meanings.) There are two different origins; most of the definitions come originally from Latin caput (head) and then to Anglo-Norman kabouche (head). The other definitions (the noun “scraps” meaning and the “steal/pilfer” and “plagiarize” verb definitions are uncertain, but are thought to be an alteration of “garbage”.
The noun meaning of “scraps” and the verb meanings of “steal/pilfer” and “plagiarize” showed up in the early 1700s; the other uses go back to the late 1300s
Pronounced: KAB-ij, noun/verb
Notes: I don’t mean the plant or the food; it has other meanings that surprised me. Do you know them?
The word plenipotentiary means
The word derives from two Latin roots: plenus (full) and potens (powerful). It is sometimes used in diplomatic titles: an ambassador plenipotentiary, or an envoy plenipotentiary; such people are not only concerned with foreign affairs, but have full power to act on behalf of the sending government. Sometimes “extraordinary” (in its more literal meaning) is also added: an “Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary” is an agent with full power, but assigned to a particular (not ordinary; extra-ordinary) mission.
This word showed up in the mid-1600s
The word shambles was a borderline word. We normally use the word today to mean “a mess”, but it also means “a place of great slaughter”. Even though I knew both meanings, the origin was interesting: The word started in Latin as scamillum (little bench); in Old English, this became sceamol (a footstool; a table used for counting money or exhibiting goods). In Middle English, this became shamele with a more specific meaning (a table for the exhibition of meat for sale). In the 1400s, it became pluralized to shambles and meant “meat market” (this is the sense used in the New Testament). In the 1500s, it meant “slaughterhouse”, and then “a place of terrible slaughter or bloodshed”. Because such a scene can be messy, we get the modern meaning of “mess” or “a state of great confusion”.
Pronounced: pleh-nuh-puh-TEN-shuh-ree (also pleh-nuh-puh-TEN-shree), adj
Notes: Today’s word is long, but I’ve run across it in reading
The word baragnosis means “loss of the ability to sense weight”
Even after reading the definition, I’m was uncertain of what it meant: did it mean unaware of one’s own weight? (the sample sentence I found seemed to imply this meaning). Perhaps it meant not being able to tell the weight of something when holding it? Some additional research indicated that the latter definition is meant. I’ve never heard of anyone with this problem. The word comes from three Greek words: baros (weight), a- (not) and gnosis (knowing). As a side note, we get the word “agnostic” from the second two words.
This showed up in the early 1900s
Pronounced: bar-ag-NO-sis or ba-RAG-no-sis, noun
Notes: I recognized part of the word, but I had no idea of the meaning… and even after reading the definition, I’m not sure I really understand the word.
The word meme means
I think most of us are familiar with the second meaning of the word, but it actually predates the popular use of the Internet. Richard Dawkins coined this word in his book The Selfish Gene. It caught on rapidly (like, well, a “meme”). The word was constructed as mimeme, from Greek mim- (mime or mimic), combined with the English suffix -eme (a distinctive unit of language structure). Mr Dawkins rejected mimeme; he wanted a one-syllable word and thus abbreviated it to meme.
This word was coined in 1976
Pronounced: meem, noun
Notes: I think a lot of people know at least one meaning; the word has an interesting background
The word louche means “not reputable or decent”
I have heard the phrase (or thought I heard) “loose morals” or “loose living” for many years, but now I’m wondering if I’ve been mishearing the phrase: perhaps the speaker was saying “louche living”? I know I’ve seen it written “loose living”, but I suspect that this was some kind of error. It’s just something I wondered when I read the pronunciation of this word. Anyway, the word started with Latin luscus (blind in one eye; having poor sight). It then came into French as louche (squinting; cross-eyed). It also developed a figurative meaning on the idea of a squinting look of “shady” or “devious”. When the word came into English, only the figurative meaning was used.
This word showed up in English in the 1800s
Pronounced: loosh, adj
Notes: I didn’t know this word, but it made me wonder about a few things (see tomorrow’s comments)
The word bathophobia is “a fear of depths or of falling from a height”
As you may have figured out, this is a Greek-based word; a combination of bathos (depth) and phobia (fear). The depth meaning makes sense; it is odd to see the falling from a height meaning as part of this word. I suspect that most people who say that they are afraid of heights may really be afraid of falling from them.
This is a relatively recent word, showing up in the early 1900s
Pronounced: bath-uh-FOE-bee-uh, noun
Notes: I went for the obvious (fear of taking a bath) and that’s not right
The word quincunx refers to an arrangement of five things in a rectangle (or square) with four of the ‘things’ at each corner and one in the middle.
This word comes to us from ancient Rome: they had a coin called the quincunx, which comes from quinque (five) and uncia (one twelfth). Their coin weighed five twelfths of a libra. They used a pattern of five dots, arranged like the five dots on a die as a symbol of the coin. English users adopted it for anything in this pattern. You may have noticed, as I did, the “quin” part of the word and thought that it was related to “five”, and you were right.
This word came into English in the mid-1600s
Pronounced: KWIN-kuhnks, noun
Notes: You may be able to guess part of the meaning; it’s quite a fun word to say, so I’m hoping to find occasion to drag it into conversations
The word binnacle is “a container for housing instruments on a ship’s deck, in a car’s dashbord, etc.
The word came to us either from Old Portuguese bitácola or Old Spanish bitácula. These come from Latin habitaculum (dwelling place) from habitare (to inhabit). I was right in thinking that this was ship related, but wrong in thinking it was exclusively related to ships. It is entirely proper to refer to a car’s “instrument cluster” (which is what my car manual calls it) as a binnacle.
The word showed up in the early 1600s
Richard's Vocabulary Word-of-the-Day