Pronounced: silk-STOCK-ing dis-trikt, noun

Notes: You can probably guess the meaning of this phrase, even if you don’t know it

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Yesterday’s word

The word pasquinade is

• a lampoon posted in a public place
• satirical writing; satire

First usage

Our word came into English in the mid-1600s

Background / Comments

Our word has an interesting history: in 1501, a ancient marble statue was unearthed in Rome and was set up near that city’s Piazza Navona. The statue was that of a man and was named “Pasquino” by the Romans (some sources think this may be after a local shopkeeper). It became a tradition to dress up the statue on St Mark’s Day (25 April), and, in its honor, professors and/or students would write Latin verses on it. After a short time, these verses were replaced with satires: the Pasquino statue because a common location to post anonymous and bitingly critical lampoons. When these postings were made known to the English, they were called pasquinades from the Italian pasquinata. Over time, the meaning has become more generalized to mean any satirical writing.

Pronounced: pa-skwuh-NADE, noun [note: The ‘pa’ in NOT pronounced like the shortcut word for father (that would be ‘pah’ – the ‘a’ is short as in ‘mat’]

Notes: This sounds like something I ought to recognize, but I didn’t

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Yesterday’s word

The word arrant means “complete; thorough”

First usage

Our word came into English in the late 1300s

Background / Comments

I was a little misleading yesterday — the reason that our word sounds like ‘errant’ is that it came from errant (with both spelling and meaning changes). Although I’m used to ‘errant’ meaning “straying from the right course”, the root meaning is “wandering” and was used that way: an “arrant thief” or “arrant knave” would wander about. Over time, our word was used as an intensifier, so an “arrant fool” is not so much “wandering” as a thorough-going fool. Our word came into English from French, which came from the Latin word iterare (to journey).

Pronounced: AR-uhnt, adj

Notes: This word sound like errant, but has a different meaning

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Yesterday’s word

The word malapert means “impudently bold; saucy”

First usage

Our word came into English around 1400

Background / Comments

You probably (as I did) recognized the mal- prefix (bad; badly), which came from the Latin word malus. The second half of our word came from the Middle English word apert (open; frank), which came from the Latin word apertus (open). Thus our word is something that is open or frank in a bad way: bold or rude.

Pronounced: ma-luh-PUHRT, adj

Notes: I see a kind of opposite to “expert” in this word (but I’m wrong)

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Yesterday’s word

The word ambage means “ambiguity; circumlocution”

First usage

Our word came into English in the mid-1300s

Background / Comments

A shortcut word for “ambiguous”. Our word came from the Middle English word ambages (equivocation); our word – the singular – was coined from it. It came from the Latin word ambages, which is made up of ambi- (both; around) and agere (to drive).

Pronounced: AM-bij, noun

Notes: A new word for me

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Yesterday’s word

The word sententious means

• given to or abounding in aphoristic expression or excessive moralizing
• terse in expression in the manner of an aphorism

First usage

Our word came into English in the first half of the 1400s

Background / Comments

As I noted yesterday, I thought our word was spelled “sentitious” and pronounced “sen-TIH-shuhs”. To compound that issue, I thought our word meant “false” or “lying”. Just in case there was a similar word, I checked, and there is no such word as “sentitious”. These days, our word is mostly used in a unflattering sense, implying oversimplification and excessive moralizing. [As an aside, there are times when things are oversimplified, but it is also used falsely; sometimes things really ARE simply, and we prefer to complicate them for our own purposes]. When our word first showed up, it had the idea of “full of meaning”. Our word came from the Latin word sententiosus, which came from sententia (sentence; maxim).

Pronounced: sen-TEN(T)-shuhs, adj

Notes: I had the spelling and the meaning incorrect

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Yesterday’s phrase

The phrase royal road is “an easy way to achieve something”

First usage

Our phrase came into English in the late 1700s

Background / Comments

This is a neat phrase that I would love to drop into conversations as the need arises. There was an actual Royal Road (a highway) in ancient Persia. There are references in the Bible to paths called “The King’s Highway”, which I assume is similar. However, our phrase traces back to a story about Euclid told by the philosopher Proclus. King Ptolemy had asked for an easy way to learn geometry, and Euclid responded that there is no royal road to geometry.

Pronounced: ROY-uhl road, noun

Notes: I’ve not run across this phrase

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Yesterday’s word

The word jackanapes is

• an impudent or conceited fellow
• a saucy or mischievous child
• monkey; ape

First usage

Our word came into English in the first half of the 1400s

Background / Comments

When I run across our word, I saw it used in the second definition above. Our word came from an unflattering nickname for William de la Pole, the Duke of Suffolk. While he was Duke, England lost its possessions in the north of France. He became unpopular and was nicknamed “Jack Napis” because his coat of arms contained an image of a collar and chain that was commonly used to least pet monkeys, which were known as jackanapes. After the nickname was assigned, the first definition came about, and, finally, the second definition.

Pronounced: JAH-kuh-napes, noun

Notes: You may know this word, but I found the origin interesting

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Yesterday’s word

The word basilic means “kingly; royal”

First usage

Our word came into English in the mid-1700s

Background / Comments

Our word came from the Latin word basilicus, which came from the Greek word basilikos (royal). As I noted yesterday, I “mostly” know a root – I briefly studied Koine Greek, and the Greek word for “kingdom” is basileia, which is pretty close to our word. However, I didn’t recognize it until after reading the background.

Pronounced: buh-SIL-ick (alt: buh-ZIL-ick), adj

Notes: I didn’t know the word, but I mostly know a root

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Yesterday’s word

The word abyssal means

• unfathomable
• of or relating to the bottom waters of the ocean depths

First usage

Our word came into English in the early 1600s

Background / Comments

There is some strange things about our word: the noun form of our word (“abyss”) is much better known than our adjective form. A synonym of the noun form is “abysm”, which is not well known, but the adjective form (“abysmal”) is well known. All of these words came from the Late Latin word abyssus, which came from the Greek word abyssos (“bottomless”). However, even though the nouns are synonyms, the adjectives are not. The first definition of our word is not a sense of the word “abysmal”; the second meaning is the more commonly used one for abyssal, and “abysmal” can mean this, but the more common usage of “abysmal” is “immeasurably deep” or “absolutely wretched”.

Pronounced: uh-BIH-suhl, adj

Notes: When I first glanced at this word, I thought it was “abysmal” (which meaning I know)

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Yesterday’s word

The word interregnum means “the period between the end of a reign and the beginning of the next; a time when there is no ruler”

First usage

Our word came into English in the late 1500s

Background / Comments

I remember running across this word in the Isaac Asimov novel Foundation – the first in “The Foundation Trilogy”, but now called “The Foundation Series” (because, roughly 30 years after the original trilogy, he added another four novels to the series, so it was no longer a “trilogy”). He uses interregnum to refer to the time of chaos between civilizations, and so I incorrectly thought it meant “a time of chaos”. Our word came from Latin, and is a combination of inter- (between) and regnum (reign).