bemuse

Pronounced: bih-MYOOZ, verb

Notes: This word has some different meanings; I’m not sure I knew all of them

Yesterday’s word

The word votary means, as an adjective, “bound by a vow or relating to a vow”. As a noun, it means

  • one who is devoted to an activity, person, institution, etc
  • one who has taken vows to a religion (such as a monk or a nun)
First usage

Our word came into English in the mid-1500s

Background / Comments

Our word came from the Latin noun votum (vow), which came from the verb vovere (to vow). I said yesterday that our word’s meaning has nothing to do with “vote”, but we do get our word vote from the aforementioned Latin verb.

votary

Pronounced: VOH-tuh-ree, noun/adj

Notes: Nothing to do with voting (which is what I thought)

Yesterday’s word

The word clerihew is “a light verse quatrain rhyming a-a-b-b and usually dealing with a person named in the initial line”

First usage

Our word came into English in the 1920s

Background / Comments

I don’t have any memory of having run across any clerihews. Our word came from a book called Biography for Beginners by E Clerihew (whose real name was Edmund Clerihew Bentley). The book was a collection of humorous four-line verses about famous people, that he claimed he started as a bored high school student. The readers of the book began to call such verses clerihews, and it stuck. Here’s one from his book: Sir Humphrey Davy / Abominated gray. / He lived in the odium / Of having discovered Sodium.

clerihew

Pronounced: KLER-ih-hyoo, noun

Notes: I have not heard of our word

Yesterday’s word

The word plutarchy means

  • rule by the wealthy
  • a wealthy ruling class
First usage

Our word came into English in the mid-1600s

Background / Comments

I thought our word was related to Pluto, from Roman mythology, but that is wrong. I’ve never considered our word to be related to “Plutarch” (a Greek biographer); if you do, that is also wrong. Our word comes from Greek mythology – “Plutus” (more literally “Ploutos”), who was the god of riches. Our word is a combination of pluto- (wealth) and -archos (ruler).

plutarchy

Pronounced: PLOO-tar-kee, noun

Notes: You may know this word; it was somewhat familiar to me, but I was incorrect as to the origin

Yesterday’s phrase

The phrase tu quoque is “a retort charging an adversary with being or doing what he criticizes in others”

First usage

Our phrase came into English in the early 1600s

Background / Comments

One of the childish arguments is “You too!” and that is what the Latin phrase tu quoque literally means. Using our phrase sounds much more high-class instead of childish. A tu quoque, for all that it sounds erudite, is really evading the accusation instead of answering the point (or points) raised. Note that our word, thought it is a noun, can function as an adjective, such as in the phrase “a tu quoque argument”.

tu quoque

Pronounced: TOO-KWOH-kwee, noun

Notes: I didn’t know this phrase, but many of us have experienced what it means

Yesterday’s word

The word dispositive means “relating to or bringing about the settlement of a case”

First usage

Our word came into English in the late 1400s

Background / Comments

I thought that our word might mean “not positive”, with dis- meaning “not”, but that is clearly incorrect. Our word came from dispose, which came from the Old French word disposer, which came from the Latin word disponere (to arrange), which is composed of dis- (apart) and ponere (to put).

dispositive

Pronounced: dis-POZ-ih-tihv, adj

Notes: This word didn’t mean what I thought it meant

Yesterday’s word

The word prepend means (also see the Comments below)

  • to reflect on carefully; ponder
  • to be attentive
First usage

Our word came into English in the early 1500s

Background / Comments

There is a word spelled the same way, but meaning “a brick or stone reaching through a wall”, and it has a different origin. Our word came from the Latin word perpendere (to weigh carefully; ponder), which came from pendere (to weigh). I think the word looked familiar to me because of words like “append”, “suspend”, and “perplex”.

perpend

Pronounced: purr-PEND, verb

Notes: This word looks familiar; I think it is parts that look familiar

Yesterday’s word

The word formicate means

  • to crawl like ants
  • to swarm with ants
First usage

Our word came into English in the mid-1800s

Background / Comments

Our word came from the Latin word formicare (to crawl like ants), which came from formica (ant). It’s interesting the Formica is a trademarked for a brand of thermosetting plastic.

formicate

Pronounced: FOR-mih-kate, verb

Notes: I didn’t know the meaning of the word, but after I saw the definition, it was obvious

Yesterday’s word

The word luftmensch is “an impractical contemplative person having no definite business or income”

First usage

Our word came into English in the 1900s (meaning 1900-1910)

Background / Comments

If you thought that our word looks Yiddish, you are correct. Our word is an adaptation of the Yiddish word luftmentsh, which is composed of luft (air) and mentsh (human being). It has the idea of someone who always seems to have his head in the clouds. Note that we get the words “loft” and “lofty” from luft.

luftmensch

Pronounced: LUFT-men(t)sh, noun

Notes: The word looks slightly familiar, but I cannot recall where I may have read it (and I don’t know the meaning)

Yesterday’s word

The word assonance is “the use of words with the same or similar vowel sounds but with different end consonants”. An example of assonance is the “o” sounds in the phrase A host of golden daffodils.

First usage

Our word came into English in the mid-1700s

Background / Comments

As I noted yesterday, I definitely remember coming across our word – in the C. S. Lewis book The Voyage of the “Dawn Treader” – book #3 of the “Chronicles of Narnia”. It has the wonderful opening line: There was a boy called Eustace Clarence Scrubb, and he almost deserved it. I didn’t look up the word, but from the context, I assumed it had to do with a poetic technique. Our word came from French, which came from the the Latin words ad- (to) and the verb sonare (to sound), which came from the noun sonus (sound).

assonance

Pronounced: AS-uh-nuhns, noun

Notes: I have run across this word, but I didn’t know the meaning of it

Yesterday’s word

The word borborgymus is “intestinal rumbling caused by moving gas”

First usage

Our word came into English in the early 1700s

Background / Comments

A more common expression used instead of our word is “stomach rumbling”. Our word came from New Latin, which came from the Greek verb borboryzein (to rumble). It is thought that the Greeks created this word to imitate the digestive noises made by a stomach.