Richard's Vocabulary Word-of-the-Day
Words that I do not know
Pronounced: POO-bah, noun
Notes: I’ve heard this word, but had no clue as to the origination of it
The word vizard is “a visor, mask, or disguise”
Our word came into English in the mid-1500s
Our word is a variant of “visor”, which comes from the Anglo-French word viser, which comes from vis (face), which came from visus (sight), which came from videre (to see).
Pronounced: VIZ-uhrd, noun
Notes: Also spelled “visard”, this is not “wizard” misspelled
The word cicerone is
Our word came into English in the mid-1700s
When I saw our word, I thought of the Roman named “Cicero” – rather to my surprise, that is the correct origin of our word: he was known in Rome as a statesman, lawyer, and writer. Today, he is remembered for his skill in oration and as a rhetorician – his style placed emphasis on the rhythms and cadences of phrases and sentences, so that the speech would appeal to the audience. It is thought that his eloquence is why his Italian name – Cicerone – was used to refer to sightseeing guides (also known for their eloquence). In time, this because our word for people who are mentors or tutors to others.
Pronounced: si-suh-ROH-nee, noun
Notes: I didn’t know the definition, but my tentative guess at the origin was correct
The word cocker, as a verb, means “to pamper or spoil”. As a noun, it is “a breed of small spaniel dog”
The verb definition came into English in the late 1400; the noun meaning came into English in the early 1800s.
The verb definition was unknown to me… the origin of the verb form is not really known. The noun usage comes from dogs used in hunting of birds such as woodcock (thus, “cocker”). I have heard of “cocker spaniels”, but didn’t know that cocker itself was a word.
Pronounced: KAHK-urh, verb/noun
Notes: I thought of the idiom “according to Cocker”, but that has nothing to do with this word
The word Svengali is “a person who manipulates or exerts excessive control over another”
Our word came into English in the 1910s
Our word came from a novel by George du Maurier: Trilby, published in 1984. A model named Trilby falls under the spell of a villainous musician and hypnotist named Svengali – through hypnosis he trains her voice and she becomes a singing star. Svengali completely subjugates her. The villain of the book impressed people enough that his named passed into the language.
Pronounced: sven-GAH-lee, noun
Notes: I thought this was a country (it’s not)
The word inspissate means “to thicken or condense”
Our word came into English in the early 1600s
Our word came from the Latin word inspissare (to thicken), which came from spissus (thick). I assume one could use this of soup or perhaps paint. But it is new to me.
Pronounced: in-SPIS-ate, verb
Notes: I did not know this word (making it fit for these posts)
The word gloss means
Our word came into English in the mid-to-late 1200s
As I noted, I know the noun gloss, which means “shine”; I also know the phrase “gloss over”, which means ‘to treat or describe something as if it were not important’. Our word came from the Middle English noun glose/glose, which came from the Old French word glose, which came from the Medieval Latin word glōsa/glōza, which came from the Greek word glôssa (a word that needs an explanation; an obscure word – literally ‘language’ or ‘tongue’).
Pronounced: glahs, verb
Notes: I know the phrase “gloss over” and the noun “gloss”, but not the verb
The word prow means, as a noun
As an adjective, it means “valiant”
The noun came into English in the mid-1500s; the adjective came into English in the mid-1300s
The adjectival meaning was completely new to me; as noted above, it is older – it came from the Middle French word prou, which came from the Old English prud. The noun form came from the Middle French word proue, which came from the Old Italian dialect prua, which came from the Latin word prora.
Pronounced: prow, noun/adj
Notes: Another word that I know one of the meanings – but do you know the meaning when used as an adjective?
The word phreaker is “one who gains illegal access to a telephone system” (note that some references claim that this word is slang)
Our word came into English in the 1980s
Our word is considered to be a combination of phone and freak – the action is called “phreaking”. As I noted yesterday, I just happen to know this word from the pre-Internet days. I have a BBS (Bulletin Board Service) account on several local boards, and I ran across the phrase there. I gathered that the idea was to use special combination of tones to allow one to make long distance calls for free. With mobile phones replacing land lines, and so many plans allowing free long-distance calls, I suspect that phreakers and phreaking are getting obsolete — but one reference says that the word now describes people who break into phone company computers.
Pronunciation: FREE-kuhr, noun
Notes: A word I happen to know (probably getting obsolete)
The word rote means
The first and third definitions came into English in the mid-1300s; the middle definition came into English in the early 1600s
I mostly know our word in the phrase “learn by rote”, so I knew the first definition. I have never heard of the other two. It turns out that each definition has a different origin: the first one is obscure; the second one is thought to have come from Scandinavia; and the third one came from the Middle French word rote.
Pronounced: rote, noun
Notes: I know only one of the definitions – how many do you know?
The word peregrination is “an excursion especially on foot or to a foreign county; journey”
Our word came into English in the mid-1400s
Our word goes back to the Latin word peregrinus (foreign; foreigner). We get the word pilgrim from the same Latin word: it originally meant “alien” — today, it means “tending to wander”. The Latin word is also the source of “peregrine”, a type of falcon: legend has it that it is captured during its first flight (pilgrimage) from the nest. Getting back to our word, the idea of “foreign” has more or less faded away so that it can mean any kind of long, wandering journey.
Richard's Vocabulary Word-of-the-Day