Richard's Vocabulary Word-of-the-Day
Words that I do not know
Pronounced: PUHL-yuh-late, verb
Notes: I thought this had to do with chickens, and I was both right and wrong
The word ochophobia means “a fear or dislike of crowds”
Probably everyone knows that -phobia means “fear” — it comes from Greek, as does the ochlos part, which means “mob”.
This word showed up in the late 1800s
Pronounced: ahk-luh-FOE-bee-uh, noun
Notes: My guess was fear of the number eight (that’s not right)
The word sastruga means “a wavelike ridge of hard snow formed by the wind — usually used in the plural (sastrugi).
This word came into English from German, but it is not of German origin. The word comes from zastruga (groove, small ridge, furrow); it comes from a dialect of Russian. It is an unusual word, and it’s even more rare to be able to use it in the Dallas area of Texas. If it snow, it usually melts the next day. But in mid February 2021, a severe cold snap kept snow on the ground for days, and the wind sculpted sastrugi.
This word began to be used in English in the mid-1800s
Pronounced: SAS-truh-guh, noun
Notes: This word is usually used in the plural (sastrugi), and is more-or-less timely for last month’s weather. Even though I grew up in northern Illinois, I did not know this word, and I’d be surprised if any native Texan knows it.
The word ocellus means
The word comes from Latin ocellus (little eye), which is a diminutive of oculus (eye).
This word showed up in the early 1800s
Pronounced: oh-SELL-us, noun
Notes: Yet another word I simply didn’t know
The word gymkhana means “a meet featuring sporting contests or athletic skills such as competitive games on horseback or a timed contest for automobiles”.
The word originates in India; it is considered to be an alteration of the Hindi gẽdkhāna, which is a ball-playing area similar to a racquetball court. In addition, the first syllable was influenced by our word gymnasium. The first gymkhanas were displays of athletics and equestrian skill. While these are still common, the 1900s introduced a new kind of gymkhana that shows off car handling (instead of horse handling). Modern auto gymkhanas are often held in parking lots, where contestants race over tight, twisting courses marked with cones or pylons.
The word began to be used in the 1800s.
Pronounced: jim-KAH-nuh, noun
Notes: I have run across this in a British television show, but I didn’t know the word
The word trompe l’oeil means
The word comes from French (duh!) and literally means “fools the eye” with the following root words: tromper (to deceive), le (the), oeil (eye).
This word came into English in the late 1800s
The candidate word roseate was rejected because I properly figured out the meaning.
Pronounced: tromp loi
Notes: No credit for knowing the language this word comes from
The word sedulous means
The word traces back to the Latin se dolus, literally meaning “without guile”. The two words eventually merged into one, sedulo (sincerely, diligently), which became sedulus in Latin and became our word in English.
This word came into English in the mid-1500s
Pronounced: SEH-juh-luhs, adj
Notes: I was off on this word; I associated it with something sinister or unpleasant, and that’s not at all the case for this word
The word ullage means “the amount of liquid by which a container falls short of being full” – a pretty handy word.
The word comes from Old French noun ouillage/eullage, which come from the verb ouiller/eullier (to fill a cask), with the root word ouil (eye, hole).
The word showed up in the mid-1400s
Pronounced: UL-ihj, noun
Notes: A nice, useful word that I did not know
The word tarantism means “a dancing mania or malady of late medieval Europe”
In the 1500s the town of Taranto in Italy was hit by a dance craze; people had a hysterical impulse to dance and was called “tarantism”. Some people claimed that this impulse was caused by the bite of the the European wolf spider, called “tarantula” — also after the name of the town. The folk story was that dancing was the only cure to the bite. Musicians would show up in the region to help cure the epidemic. There is some belief that the Italian folk dance called the “tarantella” resulted from this craze (note that this is the word that I referred to as knowing); however, “tarantella” may have just come from the town name instead of the dance name.
The word showed up in the mid-1600s
Pronounced: TA-run-tih-zuhm, noun
Notes: I didn’t know this word, but it is related to a word I have heard of
The word Bluebeard refers to a marries and kills one wife after another
As I noted yesterday, I knew the meaning of this word; it was the background that I didn’t know. I’ve always thought that Bluebeard was a real person – probably by association with Blackbeard, who was a real person. Bluebeard comes from a fairy tale by Charles Perrault. The main character, Raoul, has the nickname Bluebeard due to his bluish beard. He marries multiple times, and forbids each wife to enter a certain room. One wife does, and finds the bodies of his earlier wives. Thus the word came to mean a man who has married several times. A similar phrase for women is “black widow”.
The word came into English in the late 1700s
Pronounced: BLUE-beard, noun
Notes: I know the word, but the background was utterly new to me
The word palinode means
The story goes that Stesichorus, a Greek poet in the 6th century BC, was struck blind after writing a poem insulting Helen of Troy. His sight was restored after he wrote an apologetic palinode – he used the Greek word palinōidia, from palin (back or again) with aeidein (to sing). English poets borrowed the Greek word for their own nodes.
This word came into English in the 1500s
Richard's Vocabulary Word-of-the-Day