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?

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Yesterday’s word

The word plenipotentiary means

• invested with full power
• of or relating to a person invested fully to transact any business

Background / Comments

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.

First usage

This word showed up in the mid-1600s

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Rejected Words

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

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Yesterday’s word

The word baragnosis means “loss of the ability to sense weight”

Background / Comments

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.

First usage

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.

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Yesterday’s word

The word meme means

• an idea, behavior, style, or usage that spreads from person to person within a culture
• an interesting or amusing item spread widely online (especially through social media)

Background / Comments

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.

First usage

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

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Yesterday’s word

The word louche means “not reputable or decent”

Background / Comments

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.

First usage

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)

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Yesterday’s word

The word bathophobia is “a fear of depths or of falling from a height”

Background / Comments

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.

First usage

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

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Yesterday’s word

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.

Background / Comments

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.

First usage

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

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Yesterday’s word

The word binnacle is “a container for housing instruments on a ship’s deck, in a car’s dashbord, etc.

Background

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.

First usage

The word showed up in the early 1600s

Pronounced: BIH-nih-kuhl, noun

Notes: I thought this was something on a ship, but that wasn’t entirely correct

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Yesterday’s word

As most probably know, a cubit is an ancient unit of length based on the length of the forearm to the tip of the middle finger.

Background / Comments

The word comes from a Latin source meaning “elbow”; however, the measurement itself may have originated in Egypt. The actual length varied from time to time and place to place, but is generally estimated at 18 inches. My personal cubit is 19 inches (possibly from carrying heavy engineering textbooks in school). The word is used in English translations of the Bible to represent the Hebrew word ammah and the Greek word péchus.

First usage

The word showed up in the mid-1300s (it was used in the Wycliffe Bible in 1382)

Pronounced: KYOO-buht, noun

Notes: Anyone with some familiarity with the Bible probably knows this word, but this is one that I found the background interesting.

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Yesterday’s word

The word titfer is rhyming slang for “hat”

Background / Comments

As in the case with rhyming slang, there is a fairly well-know expression (tit for tat); hat rhymes with tat, and, with compression, what’s left becomes titfer.

First usage

This word showed up around 1925.

Pronounced: TIT-fur, noun

Notes: I don’t think I’ve run across this word… it’s another case of rhyming slang (and, unlike the last post, this one is guessable)

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Yesterday’s Phrase

A parting shot, as you probably know, is “a threat, insult, sarcastic retort, or the like uttered upon leaving”.

Background / Notes

As I noted yesterday, I knew this phrase, but what I didn’t know is that this is a corruption of the actual phrase: Parthian shot. I’ve run across Parthian shot in reading; I could tell from the context that it was similar in meaning to parting shot (I assumed it had some more specific meaning, but I didn’t look it up). The word goes back to the ancient Parthians, who had a practice of firing missiles backwards while fleeing. More fun: in 53 BC, the Parthian army was the underdog in a fight with the Romans, but won an overwhelming victory, killing the filthy rich general Marcus Lincinius Crassus. His income was 32,000 times the average wage of the day, and he is still one of the richest men who ever lived – in modern terms, he was worth around 170 billion dollars. He made his money in real estate, but unscrupulously: he had his own private fire brigade, but he wouldn’t save a man’s property from fire unless the owner agreed to sell at a deeply discounted price, which Crassus then re-sold at immense profit. His name has not been entirely forgotten: It survives in our word crass (without refinement, delicacy, or sensitivity; gross; obtuse; stupid).

First Usage

The word showed up in the late 1800s