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about in the early 1600s, there are earlier references in the mid-1500s, where the word meant “tyrant” – but that usage is obsolete.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.

pelagic

Pronounced: puh-LAH-jick, adj

Notes: My guess was way off regarding the definition of this word

Yesterday’s word

The word homunculus is

  • a tiny human being
  • [an early belief] a fully-formed miniature human being present in the male or female reproductive cells
First usage

Our word came into English in the mid-1600s

Background / Comments

In the classic British Sci-Fi show Doctor Who, one of the most popular actors to play the title role is Tom Baker. One of his stories, The Talons of Weng-Chiang is always ranked near or at the top of the best of the classic Doctor Who shows. In that show, there is a criminal from 51st century earth who brings with him something called “the Peking Homunculus”, which is a kind of android using the brain of a pig. That is my only encounter with our word, and it didn’t really help with the definition. Our word came from the Latin word homunculus (little man), which is just a diminutive of homo (man).

homunculus

Pronounced: huh-MUNG-kyuh-luhs (alt: HO-mung-kyuh-luhs), noun

Notes: I’ve heard the word, but it didn’t help

Yesterday’s word

The word shivaree is “a nosy mock serenade to a newly married couple”

First usage

Our word came into English in the early 1800s

Background / Comments

In the 1800s, a newly married couple would have a mock serenade with pots, pans, or homemade instruments. The reference material for our word says that such a “serenade” was more common for second marriages or other “incongruous” marriages (such as a significant age discrepancy). I wonder if the idea of celebrating a marriage with noise descends from this tradition – we have probably seen (on television or in movies) cars labeled “Just Married” with tin cans tied behind it. In some places, there is a tradition of driving around and honking cars to the new couple. In the eastern United States, this practice was called a “serenade”; it was in the central US and Canada that our word was used; it came from the French word charivari (the same custom in France). The origin of the French word is not known for sure.

shivaree

Pronounced: shih-vuh-REE, noun

Notes: This word sounds slightly familiar, but I don’t have any recollection of it

Yesterday’s word

The word jaundiced means

  • prejudiced (biased) because of envy or resentment
  • having jaundice (a disease in which the skin or the whites of the eyes is unnaturally yellow)
First usage

Our word came into English in the mid-1600s

Background / Comments

I knew of the second meaning above; in fact, I knew a young man in college who was given a shot from an unclean needle that gave him jaundice. I still remember how oddly yellow his eyes looked. However, I was incorrect regarding the first definition; I thought that the word meant “cynically jaded”. Our word came from the Old French word jaunice (yellowness), which came from jaune (yelllow), which came from the Latin word galbinus (yellowish), which came from galbus (yellow).

jaundiced

Pronounced: JAWN-dist, adj

Notes: I didn’t have one definition right

Yesterday’s word

The word langueur is “a dull and tedious passage or section (as of a book, play, or musical composition)”. It is usually found in the plural form.

First usage

Our word came into English in the early 1800s

Background / Comments

I have run across, in my reading, passages that are langueurs – as I assume most people have, but I didn’t know that there was a word for it. Our word is pronounced like “longer”, except that the emphasis is on the second syllable. Our word came from the French word longueurs (tedious passages), which came from longueur (length). One of the earliest English uses (perhaps the first) was by Horace Walpole writing about James Boswell’s Life of Samuel Johnson.

longueur

Pronounced: long-GUHR, noun

Notes: This word is frequently pluralized

Yesterday’s word

The word libertine means, as a noun, a person who is morally unrestrained. As an adjective, it means “unrestrained by conventions or morality”

First usage

Our word came into English in the late 1300s

Background / Comments

Our word brings back the memory of the film “The Music Man” – pretty early in the film “Professor” Harold Hill (played by Robert Preston) is speaking against the new pool table… in part of his “Ya Got Trouble” spiel, he mentions “…libertine men and scarlet women and ragtime – shameless music!” I have run across our word in a few books, but usually older ones. Our word came from the Latin word libertinus (freedman), which came from liber (free).

libertine

Pronounced: LIB-uhr-teen, noun/adj

Notes: This word is not used much anymore

Yesterday’s word

The word factoid means

  • an invented fact believed to be true because of its appearance in print
  • a briefly stated and usually trivial fact
First usage

Our word came into English in the 1970s

Background / Comments

When our word was first coined (by Norman Mailer), he meant it in the first definition above. The suffix -oid came from the ancient Greek word eidos (appearance; form). Just as “humanoid” refers to something that appears human (but isn’t), so was factoid originally used. The meaning has changed over time and now is used primarily with the second definition above.