Richard's Vocabulary Word-of-the-Day
Words that I do not know
Pronounced: bree-koh-LAHZH, noun
Notes: I’ve never run across this word
The word traject, as a verb, means “to transport; to transmit”. As a noun, it means “transport; transmission; passage”
Our word came into English in the mid-1500s (for the noun) and the early 1600s (for the verb).
Our word came from the Latin word traicere (to throw across), which is made up of trans- (across) and jacere (to throw).
Pronounced: truh-JEKT, verb/noun
Notes: I know “trajectory”, but not this word
The word colloquy means
Our word came into English in the mid-1500s
If you thought of “colloquial”, you did well: “colloquial” came a couple of hundred years after colloquy. Our word came from the Latin word loqui (so speak) combined with col- (with).
Pronounced: KAH-luh-kwee, noun
Notes: You might be able to guess at the definition
The word homophone is “a word or phrase that, when spoken, appears to be the same as a different word or phrase on a person’s lips”
Our word came into English in the late 1800s
The example I read was “my” and “pie”, which have the same lip movements. I noted yesterday that I knew the parts of the word, but it turns out that I was only partially correct. I thought the word was made up of homo- (same) and phone (sound). I was right about homo-, but I was wrong about the second part. It is from the Greek word phainein (to show).
Pronounced: HAHM-uh-feen, noun
Notes: I recognized the parts of our word, but I didn’t know what it meant
The word catawampus means “askew; awry; cater-cornered”
Our word came into English in the mid-1800s
When I was growing up, things that were diagonal from each other were called “kitty-corner” or “kitty-cornered”. This was, no doubt, was changed by people from “catercorner” (also cater-corner), with the “cat” suggesting “kitty”. It is thought that our word came from “catercorner”. In the Middle Ages, the French word for “four” could be spelled “quatre” or “catre” — it came into English as “cater”, and was used to refer to a die with four pips. If one connects the four spots, it makes an “X”, which is probably why “cater” developed the meaning of “diagonally”. Anyway, it appears that “catercorner” is the original word for things being diagonal, and other words (catercornered, catawampus, kitty-corner, kitty-cornered etc) came from that.
Pronounced: ka-tuh-WAHM-puhs, adj
Notes: You may know this word, but the background is rather interesting
The word heteroclite, as a noun, means
As an adjective, it means
Our word came into English in the late 1500s
I really like this word – I hope I remember it enough to drop into conversations where it is appropriate. In my opinion, most people are unconventional in some ways. When one has enough areas in which one is unconventional, one becomes a noted eccentric. Our word came from the Latin word heteroclitus, which came from the Greek word heteroklitos, which is made of hetero- (different) and klinein (to learn; inflect).
Pronounced: HET-uhr-uh-klite, noun/adj
Notes: A nice word to start using
The word cliometrics is “the application of methods developed in other fields (such as economics, statistics, and data processing) to the study of history”
Our word came into English in the 1960s
The American economists Douglass North and Robert Fogel developed cliometrics; in 1993, they won the Nobel Prize in Economics for their work. If you know and remember Greek mythology, Clio is the name of the Greek Muse of history.
Pronounced: klie-uh-MEH-tricks, noun
Notes: I thought that might be related to climate
The word homologate means “to approve officially – especially a car, engine, etc, for sale in a particular market or for its use in racing”
Our word came into English in the mid-1600s
From the definition, it seems that people familiar with racing cars might know our word. It came from the Latin word homologare (to agree), which came from the Greek word homologein (to agree or allow).
Pronounced: huh-MOL-uh-gate (alt: hah-MOL-uh-gate), verb
Notes: A kind of specialized word
The phrase ne plus ultra means
Our phrase came into English in the late 1600s
Our phrase came from the New Latin phrase ne plus ultra ([go] no more beyond). It is said the related phrase non plus ultra was inscribed on the Pillars of Hercules at the Strait of Gibraltar, marking the western end of the classical world: it was a warning: “Let there not be more sailing beyond”.
Pronounced: nat-plus-UHL-truh, noun
Notes: I don’t think I’ve run across this phrase
The word heterography means
Our word came into English in the late 1700s
Our word came from two Greek words: hetero- (different) and -graphy (writing). As I noted, I could parse these two words, but it didn’t help this time with the meaning. Regarding the second definition above, one example is the letter “c” that can be “hard” (cake) or “soft” (cease). We also have “th” in “with” and “then”, or more dramatically, the “gh” in “enough” and “ghost”.
Pronounced: het-uh-ROG-ruh-fee, noun
Notes: I could parse the word, but it didn’t help me with the definitions
The word fanfaronade is “empty boasting; bluster”
Our word came into English in the mid-1600s
The word seems slightly familiar to me, but I cannot place where I may have heard it before. Now that you know the meaning of this word, you should be able to guess that a “fanfaron” is “a braggart” – but it is pretty uncommon and usually only found in unabridged dictionaries. If you think our word might be related to “fanfare”, you my be correct, but it isn’t clear. It is nice to have a word that does not trace back to Latin or Greek. Our word came from the French word fanfaronnade, which came from the Spanish word fanfarronada, which came from the Spanish word fanfarrón (a boaster).
Richard's Vocabulary Word-of-the-Day