Richard's Vocabulary Word-of-the-Day
Words that I do not know
Pronounced: kah-nuhr-BAY-shuhn, noun
Notes: Another word that is new to me
The word scandent means “climbing; ascending”
Our word came into English in the late 1600s
Our word is a good one for general use. It came from the Latin word scandere (to climb). The same Latin word is also the root of “ascend” and “descend”.
Pronounced: SKAN-duhnt, adj
Notes: A new word to me, but a useful one
The word ludic means “of, relating to, or characterized by play; playful”
Our word came into English in the 1930s
Psychologists wanted a word do describe what children do — apparently, the word “playing” didn’t sound good enough for them — and came up with the phrase ludic activity, and then the word ludic caught on. These days it can refer to playful architecture, or narrative that is humorous, or even light literature. Our word came from the Latin noun ludus (stage shows; games; shorts; jokes). Our word ludicrous comes from the same Latin source.
Pronounced: LOO-dick, adj
Notes: Not a word I’ve run across
The word oneiric means “of or relating to dreams; dreamy”
Our word came into English in the mid-1800s
Our word came from the Greek word oneiros (dream).
Pronounced: oh-NYE-rick, adj
Notes: Not at all what I thought it meant!
The word victual means “food usable by people”. The more common plural form means “supplies of food”. I think I have only seen the plural form of our word.
Our word came into English around 1300s
Well, I ran across conflicting information when looking up information about this word. There is a word “vittles”, which one source says came into English before our word, so it cannot be just an alliterative misspelling of our word. However, another source says that “vittles” came into English around 1600. I may try to drag the singular word into conversation. Our word came from Middle English from Anglo-French from the Latin noun victus (nourishment; way of living), which is derived from the Latin word vivere (to live).
Pronounced: vih-tuhl, noun
Notes: This word is much more common in the plural: do you know the meaning of the singular form?
The word klatsch is “a casual gathering of people for conversation, etc”
Our word came into English in the 1950s
I have always heard people say “clutch” instead of “clatch” for the pronunciation, but such a pronunciation is not supported by the dictionaries I looked at. Our word comes from the German word Klastch (gossip).
Pronounced: KLACH (alt: KLAHCH), noun
Notes: I usually hear this word mispronounced
The word fillip means
Our word came into English in the mid-1500s
I was aware of the second meaning, although I have more often seen it used an a noun: person A uses something as a fillip to get person B to do something. The first definition I always thought was called “flick” (you cover the fingernail with your thumb and then straighten the finger). The write-up of our word says that it such an action is commonly called a “flick”, but the online dictionary I looked at does not have this meaning.
Pronounced: FIH-lup, verb
Notes: I sort of knew one of the definitions
The word impedimenta is “baggage, supplies, or equipment related to an activity or expedition, especially when regarded as slowing one’s progress”
Our word came into English around 1600
Our word came from Latin, which is the plural of impedimentum, which came from impedire (to impede), which came from im-/in- and ped (foot).
Pronounced: im-ped-uh-MEN-tuh, plural noun
Notes: This word looks familiar, but I could not define it
The word chthonic means “of or relating to the underworld; infernal”
Our word came into English in the late 1800s
Our word came from the Greek word chthōn (earth), which was associated with things that dwell in or under the earth. Our word can be used to describe earthly or natural things instead of things that are elevated or celestial.
Pronounced: THAH-nik, adj
Notes: I don’t think I’ve ever run across this word
The word Anthropocene is “the geological period marked by a significant human impact on climate and the environment”
Our word came into English around 2000
Our word came from the Greek word anthropo- (human) and -cene (denoting a geological period). Given the wording of the definition — specifically the word ‘significant’ — our word could mean almost anything. Although it is trendy to claim that we are in an Anthropocene era currently, it seems very much open to question: there is pretty solid agreement that the climate is changing, but there is a lot of disagreement as to how much of the change is cyclical; how much is caused by humans, and how dangerous the changes are.
Pronounced: AN-thruh-puh-seen, noun
Notes: Another word I’ve never run across
The phrase mutatis mutandis means
Our phrase came into English in the 1500s
Our phrase came from Latin, where is literally means “things having been changed that have to be changed”. It doesn’t get used very often, but it can be found in certain specialized fields.
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