Richard's Vocabulary Word-of-the-Day
Words that I do not know
Pronounced: sigh-nuh-FOE-bee-uh, noun
Notes: Clearly, a fear (phobia) of some kind…
Yesterday’s word
The word corvine means “of or relating to the crows : resembling a crow”
Background / Comments
The word comes from Latin corvinus, which comes from corvus (raven). Interestingly, “raven” doesn’t come from this, but from Old English hrœfn, which is related to Old High German hraban.
First usage
This word goes back to the mid-1600s.
Pronounced: KORE-vine, adj
Notes: I didn’t know this word existed
The word plummy can mean
I assume most people know the first meaning, and several know the second: these are the two that I know. I did not know either of the last two meanings. They all come from Old English plume (plum).
The word showed up in the early 1700s
Pronounced: PLUM-ee, adj
Notes: This word had four definitions; I knew two of them. How many can you think of?
The solidus is the forward slash symbol (‘/’) used to mean “or” (as in his/her) or “and or” (straggler/deserter) or “per” (feet/second).
The word I use informally for this symbol is “slash”; however, “forward slash” (which I hear frequently in the UK) is more precise, distinguishing it from the “backward slash” (‘\’). I was aware of the word virgule for this character, but not our word. Our word has an interesting history: as one might guess, it comes from Latin solidus (solid). It started out referring to the ancient Roman gold coin that succeeded the aureus. In Medieval Latin, solidus referred to the shilling, which was also abbreviated ‘s’, ‘sh’, or ‘shill’. These abbreviations were replaced with the ‘/’ symbol: something marked 3/6 was 3 pounds, six shilling, and thus the word came to mean the ‘/’ symbol.
This word showed up in the second half of the 1300s
Pronounced: SAH-luh-duhs, noun
Notes: This is a fancy word for something; I know a different fancy word for it, but not this one
The word contund means “to thrash or bruise”
I should have seen the similarity to contusion and been able to guess at the meaning. Our word comes from Latin con- (with) and tundere (to beat).
This word started being used in the late 1500s
Pronounced: kuhn-TUHND, verb
Notes: This is another case of a word that I didn’t have any idea of the meaning, but after looking at the definition, I should have been able to figure it out.
The word pukka means “geniune, authentic; also first-class”
If this word evokes mental pictures of English rule in India, you are not wrong. The word pukka comes from Hindi and Urdu pakkā (solid). English speakers applied the concept of “sound and reliable” of solid and thus the word mean “genuine”. I first heard the word in the phrase pukka sahib (sahib is an Anglo-Indian word for a European of some social or official status). Thus the expression pukka sahib is a compliment – the person is a true gentleman. I read that pukka is modern British slang for “excellent”. In Murder on the Orient Express, there is a funny exchange between Poirot and the Greek Doctor Constantine:
Colonel Arbuthnot says, of a fellow passenger: “You can take it from me that she’s all right. She’s a pukka sahib.” After he left, Doctor Constantine asked Poirot, “What does a pukka sahib mean?” Poirot’s response is “It means that her father and brothers went to the same kind of school as Colonel Arburthnot.” The Doctor responds, “Oh, then it has nothing to do with the crime at all”. “Exactly”, says Poirot.
This word was first used in the late mid-1700s.
Pronounced: PUH-kuh, adj
Notes: I’ve run across this word in reading, and had an idea of the meaning, but I also found the background interesting. Do you know the meaning?
The word subduct means “to push or move below something”
The word comes from Latin subducere (to draw up, withdraw, remove); the word is made up of sub- (below) and ducere (to draw, lead)
The word goes back to the mid-1500s
Pronounced: suhb-DUCT, verb
Notes: I found it hard to define this word
The word logy means “marked by sluggishness and lack of vitality; groggy”
The origins of logy (sometimes spelled loggy) are uncertain (but it is NOT related to “groggy” except in meaning). It is thought to come from the Dutch word log (heavy).
This word first showed up in the mid-1800s
Pronounced: LOW-gee, adj
Notes: I’m not sure why such a short, useful word is not better known
The word rowel, as a verb means “to prick; to vex”. As a noun, it is the small spiked wheel on the end of a spur attached behind the shoes of a horse rider. They are used to goad a horse.
It is pretty straightforward; this word came from Old French roele, which came from Latin rotella (small wheel). Not being familiar with all of the equipment used in horse riding, I thought that rowels were the spurs.
The word came into English in the late 1200s
Pronounced: ROU-uhl, noun/verb
Notes: Some people may know this word
The word argosy means
Although it looks like it, argosy is not related to argonaut. Argosy comes from Ragusa, which is the Italian name for the city which is not Dubrovnik in Croatia. Over time, Ragusa mutated into ragusea, the word for the laden merchant ships that sailed from Ragusa. As time went on the spelling changed to argosy. In addition, as is the case with many words, the meaning broadened to mean any merchant vessel or rich store.
The word came into English in the late 1500s
Pronounced: ARE-guh-see, noun
Notes: I had no idea of the meaning of this word
The word cutpurse means “a thief, especially one who steals from people’s pockets”
Before clothing had pockets, people carried their money in a pouch (purse) that hung from a girdle (a belt, cord, sash, or the like worn about the waist). A thief would cut off the purse: hence, “cutpurse”. Eventually, pouches were sewn onto one’s clothing and called “pockets”, and the word evolved into “pickpocket”. I seem to recall reading of cutpurses in books set in the pre-pocket days. Incidentally, there is also a word “pickpurse”.
The word came into usage in the mid 1300s. For comparison, pickpocket showed up in the late 1500s and pickpurse showed up in the late 1300s.
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