Richard's Vocabulary Word-of-the-Day
Words that I do not know
Pronounced: PAN(t)-thee-ahn, noun
Notes: This word had a meaning I didn’t know
The word senary means
Our word came into English in the mid-1600s
I was familiar with “sestet” and “sextet”, but not our word. Our word came from the Latin word senarious (consisting of six).
Pronounced: SEN-uh-ree, adj
Notes: A new word to me
The word qua means “in the capacity or character of; as”
Our word came into English in the mid-1600s
I remember this word from way back; I ran across it in the Lord Peter Wimsey novel Strong Poison by Dorothy Sayers. (It is not the first book in the series, but it was the first one I read.) It was recommended to me by my tenth grade teacher as the subject for a book review. That particular teacher also liked mysteries and introduced me to the Lord Peter Wimsey novels. I may have run across the word elsewhere, but I do not remember. Our word came from Latin word qua (which way; as), which is itself a derivative of qui (who).
Pronounced: kwah, prep
Notes: I happen to know this word; I don’t know how well-known it is
The word apricate means “to bask in the sun” or “to expose to the sun”
Our word came into English in the late 1600s
Our word came from the Latin word apricati (to bask in the sun). Even though our word make look like “apricot”, it does not share the same root. For those interested, the word “apricot” came from the Latin word praecox (early-ripening).
Pronounced: AP-rih-kate, verb
Notes: A useful word
The word meshuggener is “a foolish or crazy person”
Our word came into English around 1900
Our word came from the Yiddish word meshugener, which came from meshuge (crazy; foolish).
Pronounced: muh-SHUH-guh-ner, noun
Notes: I have not run across this word before
The word litterateur is “an author of literary or critical works”
Our word came into English in the early 1800s
The meaning could have been guessed. Our word came from the French word littérateur, which came from the Latin word litterator (teacher of letters; grammarian; critic), which came from litterae (letters; literature), the plural of littera (letter).
Pronounced: lit-uh-uh-TUR (alt: lit-ruh-uh-TUR), noun
Notes: It may be what you think
The word hebdomadal means “occurring, appearing, or done every week; weekly”
Our word came into English in the early 1600s
Our word came from the Greek word hepta (seven). We get the word “heptathlon” from the same root – an Olympic event consisting of seven events. The noun form of our word is “hepdomad”, which is a group of seven, or a period of seven days. One relatively famous usage of our word is the name of the chief executive body of the University of Oxford from 1854 until the fall term in 2000: the Hebdomadal Council – they met once a week.
Pronounced: heb-DAH-muh-dull, adj
Notes: Fancy word; we use another word much more frequently
The phrase local classicus means “an authoritative and often quoted passage from a book”
Our phrase came into English in the mid-1800s
I was aware that the Latin word locus (place), and I thought classicus meant “classical”, which it does: actually “classical; belonging to the first or highest class”. But the actual meaning of the phrase was unknown to me.
Pronounced: LOW-cuss CLASS-ih-cuss, noun
Notes: I had an idea of the meaning of the words, but not the phrase meant
The word coruscate means
Our word came into English around 1700
Our word came from the Latin word coruscare (to flash). I don’t know how well known the word is, but I have run across it in a book in which a pouch was opened and the contents (gems) poured out, coruscating in the light of the room. Our word is a good synonym for “sparkle”.
Pronounced: CORE-uh-skate, verb
Notes: I happened to run across this word in reading
The word peripeteia is “a sudden or unexpected change of fortune (especially in a literary work)
Our word came into English in the late 1500s
I was thinking that this word had something about walking around, but I was quite far along. Our word came from the Greek word peripiptein (to change suddenly), which comes from peri- (near; around) and piptein (to fall).
Pronounced: per-uh-puh-TEE-uh (alt: per-uh-puh-TIE-uh), noun
Notes: Also spelled “peripetia”. It wasn’t what I thought
The word sequester means
Our word came into English in the mid- to late 1300s
I started reading the Perry Mason stories in my late teens, and the idea of a jury being sequestered was familiar to me. However, the second definition was quite unknown to me. Our word came from the Latin word sequestrare (to hand over to a trustee), which traces back to secus (beside; otherwise).
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