Pronounced: shluh-MEEL, noun

Notes: I’ve never read this word, but I’ve heard it

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Yesterday’s word

The word tinhorn means, as a noun, “someone who pretends to have money, skill, influence, etc”. As an adjective, it means “inferior or insignificant, while pretending to be otherwise”.

First usage

Our word came into English in the late 1800s

Background / Comments

As I noted yesterday, I’ve heard the word used as an adjective, but the noun meaning was quite unknown to me. Our word comes from the world of gambling, in which a cone-shaped container was used to shake the dice. A “tinhorn” gambler was someone who pretended to be a big player, but actually played for small stakes.

Pronounced: TIN-horn, noun/adj

Notes: I’ve heard this word as an adjective, and was pretty close, but I don’t think I’ve heard it as a noun

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Yesterday’s word

The word vilipend means

• to hold or teat as of little worth or account; contemn
• to express a low opinion of; disparage

First usage

Our word came into English in the mid-1400s

Background / Comments

Our word came from French, and into French from the Latin roots vilis (cheap; vile) and pendere (to weigh; to estimate). So, while we get “vile” and “vilify” from he first of these root, villain has another source.

Pronounced: VIH-luh-pend, verb

Notes: I didn’t know this word, but it makes me think of “villain”

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Yesterday’s word

The word hyponym is “a more specific term in a general class”

First usage

Our word came into English in the 1960s

Background / Comments

Examples are useful: “blue” is a hyponym of “color”. Oddly enough, I happened to recently learn that “javelin” is a hyponym of “spear” (a javelin is a subclass of spear; a spear can be thrust or thrown, but a javelin is a light spear that is thrown). Our word came from the Greek word hypo- (under) and -nym (name).

Pronounced: HI-puh-nim, noun

Notes: A neat word that I didn’t know

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Yesterday’s word

The word lodestar means “one that serves as an inspiration, model, or guide”

First usage

Our word came into English in the mid-1300s (but see Comments below)

Background / Comments

The literal meaning of our word is “a star that leads or guides” and was used (in the northern hemisphere) to refer to the North Star. However, that usage is archaic. The lode- part of our word came from the Middle English word lode (course). The figurative sense is what remains, but both the literal meaning and the figurative meaning died out in the 1600s; the word was revived by Sir Walter Scott in the early 1800s, and it has been around since then.

Pronounced: LOAD-star

Notes: Not what I thought

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Yesterday’s word

The word henotheism is “belief in or worship of one god without denying the possibility of others”

First usage

Our word came into English in the mid-1800s

Background / Comments

The definition of our word confuses me. If one believes in one God, then it seems to be that to allow for other gods is not consistent with that belief. The second part of the definition could, at least, make sense. I can understand worshiping one god while thinking that there may be other gods – for example, if one had a favorite god amidst a group, one may worship just that god. Our word came from the Greek words heno- (one) and -theism (belief in God).

Pronounced: HEN-uh-thee-iz-uhm, noun

Notes: I didn’t know this word, and I find the meaning strange

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Yesterday’s phrase

The phrase Potemkin village is “an impressive facade or show designed to hide an undesirable fact or condition”

First usage

Our phrase came into English in the 1930s

Background / Comments

Our word (as you may guess from the upper case “P”) came from a person – Prince Grigory Alevsandrovich Potemkin, who was commander in chief of the Russian army under Catherine the Great. After designing and carrying out the conquest of Crimea, he arranged for Catherine to take a grand tour of her new holdings. The story is that Potemkin had a series of imposing but fake villages erected along her route in order to impress her. The story is not considered to be true, but the idea is indeed clever.

Pronounced: puh-TEM(P)-kuhn-VIH-lij, noun

Notes: This word didn’t mean what I thought

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Yesterday’s word

The word aischrolatreia means “excessive devotion to filth or obscenity”

First usage

Our word came into English in the 1910s

Background / Comments

As I noted yesterday, an unpleasant word. It came from the Greek word aischro- (shameful; ugly) and -latreia (worship).

Pronounced: eye-scroh-luh-TREE-uh, noun

Notes: I didn’t know this word; it is rather unpleasant

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Yesterday’s word

The word polyonymous means “having or known by various names”

First usage

Our word came into English in the late mid-1600s

Background / Comments

As I noted yesterday, I saw the Greek roots in this word: poly- (many) and -onymous, which came from the word onoma [alt: onyma] (name), and thought of “many names”, which – to my surprise – was correct. You may recognize most of these other descendents from the Greek root onoma: anonymous, pseudonym, eponym, and patronymic.

Pronounced: pah-lee-AH-nuh-muhs, adj

Notes: I didn’t know this word, but my guess was correct (that’s rare!)

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Yesterday’s word

The word lithophone is “any of various musical instruments in which sound is produced by striking pieces of stone”

First usage

Our word came into English in the late 1800s

Background / Comments

You probably got the meaning right if you parsed the word into its Greek roots: litho- (stone) and -phone (sound). I really didn’t know that stones could make music.

Pronounced: LITH-uh-phone, noun

Notes: If you guess at the meaning, you may be right

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Yesterday’s word

The word extremophile is “an organism that lives under extreme environmental conditions (such as in a hot spring or ice cap)”

First usage

Our word came into English in the 1980s

Background / Comments

If you parsed the word, you would see extreme and -phile (lover), and you would be correct. You would then guess that our word means loving extremes, which is pretty close to the correct meaning. However, our word is not a lover of extreme sports; it is used for microbes that living in extreme places, such as those that are highly toxic or radioactive or (as noted above) very hot or very cold.