atoll

Pronounced: A-tawl

Notes: I had a general idea of the meaning, but I didn’t know the specific meaning

Yesterday’s word

The word recrudescence is “a renewed activity after a period of dormancy”

First usage

Our word came into English in the mid-1600s

Background / Comments

The background of our word is interesting: it came from the Latin word recrudescere (to become raw again), which is made up of re- (again) and crudescere (to get worse), which is based upon crudus (raw). I find this last bit interesting because it is clearly the source of “crude” as in “crude oil”. I keep wanting to put the emphasis on the second syllable and pronounce the first syllable with a short “e” sound.

recrudescence

Pronounced: ree-kroo-DES-uhns, noun

Notes: Not only did I not know this word, I had the pronunciation wrong as well

Yesterday’s word

The word hyphenate is “a person who performs more than one function” — such as a producer-director in filmmaking.

First usage

Our word came into English in the 1970s (but see the comments)

Background / Comments

As a verb meaning “to hyphen”, our word has been around since the mid-1800s. However, it started life as a noun in the early 1900s to refer to US citizens who would identify their recent foreign nationality as Irish-American or German-American. (As a side note, both Republican and Democratic Presidents of the time were opposed to this practice., including Teddy Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson — the latter stating A man who thinks himself as belonging to a particular national group in America has not yet become an American. ) As noted above, the current meaning came about decades later to describe multiple roles in some related industry. I consider myself a hyphenate in the software industry, being a developer-tester-integrator (as well as some other roles).

hyphenate

Pronounced: HI-fuh-nate, noun

Notes: Not a word I’ve run across

Yesterday’s word

The word scapegoat, as a noun, is “one blamed for another’s wrongdoing”. As a verb, it means “to blame someone for another’s wrongdoing”

First usage

Our word came into English in the mid-1500s

Background / Comments

I had heard of a scapegoat most of my life. The usage as a verb is new to me. I didn’t realize that the word came from the Bible: in Leviticus 16, a ceremony is described in which two goats are chosen; one is randomly selected as a sacrifice, and the other was released after having the sins of the people figuratively put on it. The released one went far away from the camp – thus, it “escaped” the came and was called a scapegoat in English Bibles. The original scapegoat merely carried the sins of the people far away, but the word was used to mean to blame one’s wrongdoing upon another. Christians believe that this ceremony foreshadowed Jesus Christ, who did both roles – died for the sins of the people, and living, carried them far away.

scapegoat

Pronounced: SCAPE-goat, noun/verb

Notes: I knew the noun, but not the verb

Yesterday’s word

The word sansculotte is

  • an extreme radical republican in France at the time of the Revolution
  • a radical or violent extremist in politics
First usage

Our word came into English in the early 1800s

Background / Comments

In my mind, there was a vague association of our word with the French Revolution: as you can see by the first definition above, that was a correct association. Here’s the background: at the time of the French Revolution, aristocratic men who wanted to be at the height of fashion word knee breeches (culottes in French). Non-aristocrats could not afford culottes; instead, they wore pantaloons (long trousers). [As a side notes, this word is the origin of the American word “pants” that describe trousers]. When the poorer classes started the Revolution, they called themselves soldats sans culottes (soldiers without culottes). A short while later, the word sansculotte became both a French and an English word. The second meaning is a more generalized usage of the original meaning.

sansculotte

Pronounced: sanz-koo-LAHT, noun

Notes: This word has an interesting history

Yesterday’s phrase

The phrase via dolorosa is “a distressing journey or experience”

First usage

Our phrase came into English in the late 1800s

Background / Comments

The original via dolorosa is the name given to the route that Jesus Christ took to Calvary. It does not come from the Bible, but is a Latin expression – via dolorosa (painful path) from via (path) and dolor (pain).

via dolorosa

Pronounced: VIE-uh dol-uh-ROE-suh (alt: VEE-uh dol-uh-ROE-suh), noun

Notes: You may this word, or at least its origin

Yesterday’s word

The word camarilla is “a group of unofficial often secret and scheming advisors; cabal

First usage

Our word came into English in the mid-1800s

Background / Comments

Our word came from the Spanish word camarilla (little room); it is a diminutive form of cámara (room), which came from the Latin Latin camera (room). Political plotters are assume to meet in small rooms, and thus the usage.

camarilla

Pronounced: ka-muh-RIH-luh, noun

Notes: This one is new to me

Yesterday’s word

The word nimrod means

  • a hunter
  • a stupid person
First usage

The first meaning came about in the early 1600s (and see the Comments below). The second meaning probably is from the 1930s, but it may have been used in that sense back in the mid-1800s by Robert E Lee (it is unclear exactly what he meant, so this is speculation).

Background / Comments

In the Bible, Nimrod is mentioned as a “mighty hunter before the LORD”. The name “Nimrod” means “rebellion” or “let us revolt”; in addition, some Biblical scholars note that “before” can also mean “against”. Thus, they believe that Nimrod was a highly successful hunter (and thus became a leader – he could provide food) who was against God. Thus, even though our word came about in the early 1600s, there are earlier references in the mid-1500s, where the word meant “tyrant” – but that usage is obsolete. It is not clear how our word mutated into meaning “a stupid person”, but in the late 1940s/early 1950s, Looney Tunes characters Daffy Duck and Bugs Bunny use the word in our second definition (Daffy Duck uses it of Elmer Fudd – who is a hunter; Bugs Bunny uses it of Yosemite Sam). My first experience was in high school where a person was described – clearly, the second definition was intended.

nimrod

Pronounced: NIM-rod, noun

Notes: An interesting background

Yesterday’s phrase

The phrase roman à clef is “a novel in which real persons or actual events figure in disguise” (an possibly not very well disguised).

First usage

Our phrase came into English in the late 1800s

Background / Comments

In Agatha Christie’s novel The Mystery of the Blue Train, Hercule Poirot is traveling on the Blue Train, and at one dinner, he shares a table with a younger woman, and says “I see, madame, you have a roman policier. You are fond of such things?”. She replies, “They amuse me.” This phrase is as close as I’ve come to our phrase. A roman policier is a detective story, but (unlike our phrase) is not an English phrase. Back in the late 1800s, such books included a key so that people could match the fictional characters to the real-life people – and thus was born our phrase, which came from a French phrase meaning “a novel with a key”.

roman à clef

Pronounced: roh-mahn-ah-KLAY, noun

Notes: I know a part of this phrase, but not this one

Yesterday’s word

The word scabrous means

  • rough; having small raised dots or scales
  • salacious
  • difficult to deal with; knotty
First usage

Our word came into English in the late 1500s

Background / Comments

I thought our word meant “like a scab”, which possibly fist the first definition; however, the second and third definitions are pretty much new to me. As I write this, I seem to recall reading the phrase “a scabrous problem” somewhere, which uses the third definition. Our word came from the Latin word scaber (rough).

scabrous

Pronounced: SKAB-russ, adj

Notes: This word didn’t quite mean what I thought

Yesterday’s word

The word pelagic means “of, relating to, or living or occurring in the open sea; oceanic”

First usage

Our word came into English in the mid-1600s

Background / Comments

Oddly enough, the meaning of our word hasn’t changed since it first showed up; perhaps because “oceanic” is more commonly used these days. When I saw our word, I thought of the word “pedagogical”; I may have thought it was “pedalogical”, which is someone closer. Whatever the reason, I thought it was related to teaching. Our word came from the Latin word pelagicus, which came from the Greek word pelagikos, which is made up of pegalos (sea) with the ending -ikos ending to make it an adjective.