plunderbund

Pronounced: PLUN-der-bund, noun

Notes: Some people may be able to make a good guess at this word

Yesterday’s word

The word invigilate means “to keep watch : supervise, monitor”

Background / Comments

This word has a Latin root : vigilare (to stay awake); the same root gave us vigilant. Oddly enough, another descendant is reveille. I wonder what kind of work environment we would have if “supervisors” were referred to as “invigilators”? I don’t know if that’s even a valid word, but it sounds like a fun alternative.

First usage

This word goes way back; it came into English in the mid-1500s

invigilate

Pronounced: in-VIH-juh-late, verb

Notes: I thought maybe it was related to vigilante (but no)

Yesterday’s word

The word orexigenic means “stimulating the appetite”

Background / Comments

The word comes from Greek: orexis (longing) and -genic (producing). This seems like a handy word to know.

First usage

This word isn’t that old; it showed up in the early 1900s

orexigenic

Pronounced: uh-rek-suh-JEN-ik, adj

Notes: I saw “rex” in the word and thought it may have to do with kings or royalty (I was wrong; besides, this word does not come from Latin)

Yesterday’s word

The word pridian means “of or relating to a previous day or to yesterday; also: former”.

Background / Comments

For such a useful word, it isn’t used much at all. It comes from Latin pri- (before) and dies (day). It’s really a pity that such a useful word never really caught on.

First usage

While it was certainly used in 1840, and seems to have been around for a few hundred years, the actual date of the first usage is hard to determine.

pridian

Pronounced: PRIH-dee-uhn, adj

Notes: This word is seldom used, which is a shame as it’s a useful word

Yesterday’s word

The word spitfire refers to “someone high-spirited, quick-tempered, and outspoken”

Background / Comments

This word came from the combination of spit and fire.

First usage

This word showed up in the early 1600s

Rejected word

I decided against zero-sum, because I know what it refers to: note that this word is often misapplied; true zero-sum instances are rare.

spitfire

Pronounced: SPIT-fire, noun

Notes: This word is lowercase, and thus NOT the British fighter aircraft associated with World War II (actually, it existed before the war, and remained in use afterwards). Anyway, that is not this word.

Yesterday’s word

The word haptic means

  • relating to or based on the sense of touch
  • characterized by a predilection for the sense of touch
Background / Comments

This word comes from Greek haptesthai (to touch), and the first meaning was around first (see below). Later, psychologists began to divide people into ‘visual’ and ‘haptic’ personalities and the second meaning arose (this division is uncommon today).

First usage

The first meaning is from the late 1800s; the second meaning comes from the mid-1900s

haptic

Pronounced: HAP-tik, adj

Notes: I didn’t know this word when I first ran across it, but I think I’ve run across it since

Yesterday’s word

The word gage has quite a variety of origins (and thus meanings):

  1. As a verb, “to offer something as a guarantee of good faith”. As a noun, is “a pledge; something offered as a guarantee” or “something thrown down as a symbol of a challenge to fight” (such a gauntlet)
  2. As a verb, “to measure of estimate”. As a noun “an instrument or criterion for measuring or testing” or “the thickness or size of something” — such as the diameter of a gun barrel or thickness of wire or sheet metal. This is the meaning I’m familiar with, but I’m used to the spelling ‘gauge’
  3. Any of the varieties of plum, such as the greengage
Background / Comments
  1. This comes from Old French (gage or guage) by way of Germanic origin. The Germanic ‘w’ sound became ‘g’ or ‘hu’ in some French dialects
  2. This comes from Old French gauge (note that different spelling from #1); possibly of unknown origin
  3. This is named after William Gage, the botanist who brought it to England from France
First usage
  1. This word originated in the 1300s
  2. This word is from the mid-1400s
  3. This word came into being in the early 1700s.

gage

Pronounced: gayj, noun/verb

Notes: This is another word that has multiple origins and meanings. One of the meanings I didn’t know that I knew (more tomorrow).

Yesterday’s word

The word retronym means “a term consisting of a noun and a modifier which specifies the original meaning of the noun”. For example, in the pre-digital days, a ‘camera’ always had film, but when digital cameras became common, the retronym ‘film camera’ came into being. Other retronyms are ‘desktop computer’ and ‘bricks-and-morter store’.

Background / Comments

This word is American is origin: the word retro- combined with -nym. Credit for the word is given to Frank Mankiewicz.

First usage

The word seems to have come into use around 1980

retronym

Pronounced: REH-troh-nim, noun

Notes: This is a fairly modern word to describe a relatively modern situation

Yesterday’s word

The word rummy means, as a noun, “any of various card games in which the objective is to make sets or sequences of three or more cards”. As an adjective, it can mean

  • a drunkard
  • odd or unconventional
Background / Comments

The first adjective definition (drunkard) comes from ‘rum’. I think this word may be used in “It’s a Wonderful Life”; I also think I’ve run across it in a book somewhere. I also knew the noun (the card name). Its origin is unknown. The last adjective meaning (odd) is the one I didn’t remember, but as I write this, I seem to recall reading the phrase “a rum go” (an odd situation). The origin of this usage is also unknown.

First usage

The noun origin was seen in the early 1900s; the adjectives came into English in the mid-1800s, with the second one earlier than the first.

rummy

Pronounced: RUH-me, adj/noun

Notes: This was a marginal case: this word has multiple meanings and origins (as has been the case lately); I knew two of the three, but the third one I did not know. One of the meanings has a tie-in to a well-known movie.

Yesterday’s word

The word chinoiserie is “a style in art (as in decoration) reflecting Chinese qualities or motifs; also an object or decoration in this style.

Background / Comments

I should have noticed China in the beginning of the word, but so many English words use “sino-” for Chinese things that I never thought about it. This word came straight to English from French: the French word chinois means “Chinese”. The first major example of chinoiserie was a pleasure house build for the mistress of King Louis XIV in 1670. It was called the Trianon de Procelaine and was erected at Versailles. Our word outlasted the structure, which was destroyed 17 years later. The 1930s saw a brief revival of chinoiserie.

First usage

The word is from the late 1600s.

chinoiserie

Pronounced: sheen-WAHZ-ree, noun

Notes: You may recognize part of the word

Yesterday’s word

The word mizzle means, as a noun, “fine rain or drizzle’. As a verb, it means

  • to rain in fine drops
  • to leave suddenly
  • to confuse
Background / Comments

The rain meaning comes from Middle English misellen (to drizzle). Its root word is the Indo-European word ‘meigh-‘, from which we also get mist, thrush, and mistletoe. The origin of the ‘leave suddenly’ and ‘confuse’ meanings are unknown.

First usage

The ‘rain’ meaning goes back to the mid-1400s. The ‘leave suddenly’ meaning began to be used in the mid-1700s. The ‘confusion’ meaning dates back to the late 1500s.