fiddlestick

Pronounced: FIH-dull-stick, noun and interjection

Notes: The interjection is well known, and one meaning is straightforward, but there is a meaning I didn’t know

Yesterday’s word

The word bespoke means

  • custom-made
  • dealing in or producing custom-made articles
Background

In old English, the verb bespeak meant (among other things), “to speak”, “to accuse”, and “to complain”. It acquired another meaning (see the date below): “to order or arrange in advance”, and this meaning is what gives us the adjective bespoke. The word usually refers to clothes and other things that are ordered before they are made.

First usage

This word came into used in the 1500s.

flapdoodle

Pronounced: FLAP-doo-dull, noun

Notes: You can probably guess this word, but I couldn’t admit that I knew it, so it’s been added

Yesterday’s word

The word Beltane is the Celtic May Day festival

Background

This word has been spelled “beltene”, “belltaine”, and “beltine”: it’s earliest mention was in an old Irish dictionary, attributed to Cormac, a king a bishop. Per my notes, the ancient Celts, this was a critical time when the boundaries between the human and supernatural worlds blurred and people took special measures to protect themselves against enchantments. There is a Beltane fire festival that derives from a spring ritual in which cattle were herded between two bonfires to protect them against evil and disease.

First usage

This word goes back to around the year 1000.

Beltane

Pronounced: BELL-tane, noun

Notes: I knew a little about this word, but could not properly define it.

Yesterdays’ word

The word quaquaversal means “sloping downward from a center in all directions”

Background

It comes from Latin: quaqua (in all directions). Note that quaqua comes from qua (in what direction). To quaqua is added versus (towards).

First used

The word came into English in the late 1600s

quaquaversal

Pronunciation: kwah-kwah-VUR-sal, adj

Notes: I didn’t have any idea of this word’s meaning

Yesterday’s word

The word crural means “of or relating to the thigh or leg; specifically, femoral.

Background

This word usually shows up in a medical context; a “crural artery” or “crural nerve”. It comes from Latin cruralis, which is a combination of “crur-” or “crus-” (leg) combined with “-alis” (of, relating to, or characterized by).

First usage

The word came into English in the early 1600s

crural

Pronounced: KRUR-uhl, adj

Notes: When I look at this word, I see “rural”, but that’s a false clue

Yesterday’s word

The word whigmaleerie means

  • a whim
  • a fanciful contrivance
Background

Not a lot of background; it is known to be a Scots term, but that’s about it.

First usage

The word was first used in the mid-1700s.

whigmaleerie

Pronounced: hwig-muh-LIR-ee, noun

Notes: Also written whigmaleery. This word also looks like something made up.

Yesterday’s word

The word dovecote has the following meanings (as I noted yesterday, I knew of the first one, but the second was new to me)

  • a small compartmented raised house of box for domestic pigeons
  • a settled or harmonious group or organization
Background

Shakespeare used dovecote in Cariolanus (early 1600s), but the word is older than that (see below). It came from late Middle English. Shakespeare invented the expression “like an eagle in a dove-cote”

First usage

The word goes back to the late 1300s.

dovecote

Pronounced: DUHV-coat, noun

Notes: This word has one definition that is pretty well known, but I was surprised to see a second definition.

Yesterday’s word

The word metagrobolize means “to puzzle or to mystify”

Background

This word comes from Middle French matagraboliser.

First usage

This word was first used in the mid-1600s.

metagrobolize

Pronounced: meh-tuh-GRAHB-uh-lize, verb

Notes: This sounds like a made-up word (but it isn’t)

Yesterday’s word

The word transmogrify means “to change of alter greatly and often with grotesque or humorous effect. As I noted yesterday, Calvin of Calvin and Hobbes created a ‘transmogrifier’ – it was a cardboard box on which he put wrote what he wanted to transmogrify himself into.

Background

Well, the background for this word is unclear: the prefix trans- means “across” or “beyond”, but the rest of it is not known.

First usage

The word showed up in the mid-1600s. As an interesting side note, one of the earliest users of this word was England’s first female professional writers (Aphra Behn).