Richard's Vocabulary Word-of-the-Day
Words that I do not know
Pronounced: FIM-bree-ay-tuh, adj
Notes: Some crafty people may know this word — I didn’t
The word sagamore means “a chief or leader”
The word comes from the Indian (that is, Native American) Eastern Abenaki word sakama.
This word showed up in the early 1600s
I don’t know how well-known it is, but the word recuse was rejected because I happen to know it… do any of you?
Pronounced: SAG-uh-more, noun
Notes: A handy word to know
The phrase white elephant means
The original white elephant was a sacred animal in India, Sri Lanka, Thailand, and Myanmar. Because it was sacred, it could not be used as a beast of burden; it was instead a ‘burdensome beast’, as it ate a lot, but brought no money to its owner. There is a story (I’ve heard it) that kings of Siam (Thailand now) gave white elephants as gifts to those they wished to ruin due to the cost of maintaining the animal.
This word showed up in the mid-1800s
Pronounced as you expect
Notes: I very nearly left this word out of the list, because I know the meaning, but I didn’t have a clear understanding of the origin, and I found it interesting.
The word coffle means “a line of slaves or animals fastened together”
This word comes from the Arabic word qāfila (caravan or traveling companion).
This word first appeared in the very late 1700s.
Pronounced: KAW-full, noun
Notes: An unknown word to me
The word cornpone means (an an adjective) “rustic; folksy; countrified”. As a noun, it is “unleavened born bread, baked or fried”.
This word is combination of the English word corn with the Virginia Algonquian word apones (bread)
This word was first used in the mid-1800s
Pronounced: CORN-pone, adj/noun
Notes: After reading the adjective definition, I think I ran across this years ago, but since I could not define it, it qualifies for this list.
The word scarify means
The word scarify is actually two words: the word defined above comes from a Greek word meaning “to scratch an outline”. The second word that was formed by combining “scare” with “-ify” (possibly a combination of “scare” and “terrify”) and means “to scare or frighten”.
The word as defined above came into English in the 1300s; however, the other meaning noted in the comments didn’t show up until the late 1700s.
Pronounced: SKER-uh-fie, verb
Notes: I didn’t know this word, and my guess that it was related to “scare” was wrong
The word backronym refers to “a word re-interpreted an an acronym”
The word is a blend of “back” + “acronym”. It is taking a word and pretending that it is actually an acronym for some made-up phrase. For example, one could claim that ‘acronym’ is itself an acronym for “A Contrived Result Of Nomenclature Yielding Mechanism”. I enjoy this kind of thing, but I usually begin with actual acronyms or alphabetisms and invent a new expansion.
Another more-or-less recent word; it showed up in the 1980s.
Pronounced: BACK-roe-nim, noun
Notes: I’ve run across this word, but couldn’t define it to my satisfaction
The word bright-line means “providing an unambiguous criterion or guideline – especially in the law
This word began in courts in the first half of the 1900s; they described whether or not a “bright line” could (or could not be drawn) to make clear-cut distinctions between legal issues. It is speculated that the term may have originated with physicists – the distinct color lines in the light spectrum. It was in the later 1900s that bright-line began to be an adjective, and moved to usage by non-legal types.
The non-legal adjective began to show up in the 1980s
Pronounced: As expected: BRITE-line, adj
Notes: I assume lawyers don’t enjoy this descriptive word
The word acecdata means “anecdotal information gleaned from casual information”
This word is a blend of anecdotal and data. The source of anecdotal is Greek from anekdota (things unpublished), and that word is composed of an- (not) and ekdidonai (to publish). An example of anecdata would be, for instance, to decide that wearing seat-belts is bad, citing a few people you know who survived auto accidents because they were not wearing their seat-belts. A related kind of word is cherry-picking.
This is a more recent word, showing up in 1980.
Pronounced: an-ik-DAY-tuh, noun
Notes: I’ve not run across this word before
The word eidetic means “marked by or involving extraordinarily accurate and vivid recall – especially of visual images”.
This word is most frequently used with memory as a technical description of what is commonly called “photographic memory”. The word comes from the Greek word eidos (form). Those who have the ability to recall images, sounds, or events with amazing accuracy are a subject of fascination. One famous person who was reported to have an eidetic memory was Jackie Gleason.
This word came into English in the early 1900s
Pronounced: aye-DEH-tick, adj
Notes: I usually only hear the phrase ‘eidetic memory’, so I wasn’t sure what this word actually meant by itself.
The word quincentenary means, as a noun, “a 500th anniversary”; as an adjective, it means “of or relating to a 500th anniversary”.
This word has a mixed heritage: quinque (five) in from Latin, combined with the English word centenary (100 years)
This word showed up in the late 1800s.
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