Richard's Vocabulary Word-of-the-Day
Words that I do not know
Pronounced: krunt, noun
Notes: An interesting word
The word bimillenary means “a period of 2,000 years” or “a 2,000th anniversary”
The word was created by adding bi- (an English prefix meaning ‘two’) to millenary, which comes from Latin millenarium (a period of a thousand years).
This word isn’t quite 2,000 years old: it showed up in the mid-1800s
Pronounced: bye-MIH-luh-ner-ee, noun
Notes: I debated about adding this word… you can probably guess the meaning
The word capitano means “a swaggering, cowardly person, especially a soldier, policeman, etc”
The word does mean ‘captain’, but in Italian, not Spanish. But the word comes from another stock character in commedia dell’arte – Capitano. The Italian word capitano comes from Latin caput (head).
This word showed up in the late 1500s.
Pronounced: kap-uh-TAH-no
Notes: I guessed some kind of Spanish-English (“Spanglish”) word for “captain” (but that’s not right)
The word recusant means “refusing to submit to authority”
This word goes back to Henry VIII — he separated from the Roman Catholic Church in the mid-1500s and created the Church of England, with himself as the head of it. By law, everyone had to attend services of the Church of England. Our word originally meant specifically “refusing to attend the services of the Church of England”, but after around 100 years, the meaning broadened to mean resistance to authority in any form. The word comes from the Latin verb recusare (reject or oppose).
The word has been around since the early 1600s.
Pronounced: reh-KYUH-zuhnt, adj
Notes: There is another word that we use far more often than this word
The word columbine, as an adjective, means “of or relating to a dove, in innocence, gentleness, color, etc”. As a noun, it can mean:
Incidentally, the plant meaning is the one I knew. The common root of all of these words is the Latin columbia (dove, pigeon). In Italian, colombina means “a small dove or a guileless woman”. The plant meaning came from the fact that the plant in question looks like five doves when upside down. Columbina is a stock character in commedia dell’arte and is the mistress of Harlequin and gives rise to the other two noun definitions. The adjective meaning is taken from the Latin definition.
The adjective first showed up in the mid-1600s; of the nouns, the plant meaning is the oldest, dating back to the early-1300s. The other two noun meanings are the latest (early 1700s).
Pronounced: KOL-um-bine, noun/adj
Notes: This is another multiple-source words. I know one meaning, but there are three different meanings for the noun and one for the adjective. I know one of the noun meanings. Which ones do you know?
As I mentioned yesterday, I knew that spinous meant “having spines”, but I did not know that it could mean “difficult or unpleasant to handle or meet” (similar to thorny)
I’ve read or used the phrase “a thorny situation” for one that is difficult; “a spinuous situation” could also be used. In fact, as far as I can tell, this usage of spinous pre-dates thorny.
This usage goes back to the late 1500s
Pronounced: SPY-nuhs, adj
Notes: I knew that this word meant “having spines (or prickles or thorns)”, but there is another meaning that I did not know, so it’s been listed
The word eiron means “a person characterized by self-deprecation and awareness of irony”
The word comes from the same source as alazon: Eiron is another stock character in ancient Greek comedy. Eiron is the opposite to Alazon, and triumphs over him using his self-deprecation and feigned ignorance.
This word came into English in the mid-1800s (you’d think they words would have come in together, but they are about 50 years apart)
Pronounced: AYE-ron, noun
Notes: This word is related to yesterday’s word
The word alazon means “a person characterized by arrogance, braggadocio, lack of self awareness, etc”
The word comes from Greek; Alazon was a stock character in ancient Greek comedy.
This word came into English in the early 1900s.
Pronounced: AL-uh-zon, noun
Notes: I definitely did not know this word or its source
The word legerity means “alert facile quickness of mind or body”
The word has the idea of being quick or light on one’s feet. It comes from words in Middle French, Old French, and Latin that all mean “light in weight”. These days, the word also refers to being nimble in mind. I find that people who exhibit nimbleness of mind seem to be young, regardless of their appearance.
This word showed up in the mid-1500s.
Pronounced: luh-JER-uh-tee, noun
Notes: I know many people that this word describes
The word punchinello means “a grotesque or absurd person”
As you might have guessed, this comes from the Italian (specifically, the Naples dialect) word polecenella (a short, fat buffoon, a principal character in Italian puppet shows). This word is a diminutive of pollecena (turkey pullet), and this word comes the the Latin pullus (young chicken). Our word was chosen due to the resemblance of punchinello’s nose to a turkey’s beak.
This word came into English in the mid-1600s
Pronounced: pun-chuh-NELL-oh, noun
Notes: People with what I call a “classical education” (arts/opera) may know this word; I never learned much about either of these things.
The word plastron means
This word came from French plastron (breastplate) – the protective plate worn by knights under a chain-mail tunic. It was so used in the 1500s; in the 1600s, it extended its meaning to the pad used to protect the torso of a fencer. Later (see below), herpetologists started using it for the underside of a turtle’s shell (typically nine bones overlaid by plates). From thence, it moved into the fashion world.
The word took on the meanings given above in the 1800s
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