Richard's Vocabulary Word-of-the-Day
Words that I do not know
Pronounced: YAH-hoo, noun; yah-HOO, interjection
Notes: One of a few words whose pronunciation changes the meaning (and type of speech)
The word canorous means “pleasant sounding; melodious”
Our word came into English in the mid-1600s
Our word came from the Latin verb canere (to sing). Our word is used of something that is pleasant to listen to.
Pronounced: kuh-NOR-us, adj
Notes: I didn’t know the meaning, but after seeing it, it made sense
The word rostrum is
Our word came into English in the mid-1500s
As I noted yesterday, I knew the first definition above, but the others were strange to me. In ancient Rome, a speaking platform was decorated with the beaks of captured ships… and thus, the first definition. The word comes from the Latin word rostrum (snout; bill; beak), from came from rodere (to gnaw), which explains the other meanings.
Pronounced: ROS-truhm (alt: RO-struhm), noun
Notes: I thought I knew this word, but it had meanings I did not know
The word zydeco is “popular music of southern Louisiana that combines elements of French and Caribbean music and the blues and that features guitar, washboard, and accordion”
Our word came into English in the 1960s
There is a legend concerning the origin of this word: that our word came from the lyrics of a popular Cajun dance tune (Les Haricots Sont Pas Sales) — roughly speaking, this is translated as “the beans are not salty”. When spoken in French Creole, “Les Haricots” sounds a bit like “zydeco” and zydeco began to be used for this kind of music.
Pronounced: ZIE-duh-koh, noun
Notes: Some people may know this word; it is new to me
The phrase Queenborough mayor is “a position involving pomp and show, but not real power or authority”
Our phrase came into English in the mid-1600s
It is, perhaps, more common to use the word “figurehead” instead of our phrase. Our phrase came from a 1620 play by Thomas Middleton called Hengist, King of Kent, or The Mayor of Quinborough. In the play, Simon the tanner becomes the mayor of Queenborough — by the way, Queenborough is a real town (a small one), located in the UK county of Kent.
Pronounced: QUEEN-buh-row may-uhr, noun
Notes: I have not heard this phrase, but it is a useful one
The word orchidaceous means
Our word came into English in the mid-1800s
Our word literally means “belonging to the Orchidaceae” (the name of the orchid family). The first definition was relatively obvious; the other meaning, although it makes sense with hindsight, didn’t spring to mind immediately. An interesting fact about orchids is that there is no such thing as a typical orchid. Orchids may be very tiny flowers to large showy flowers, and this is how the second definition arose. For me, orchids are also tied to the fictional detective Nero Wolfe (in books by Rex Stout) – Nero Wolfe created a greenhouse on the top floor of his New York brownstone and worked with orchids there.
Pronounced: or-kuh-DAY-shus, adj
Notes: This was a borderline word; I correctly knew a definition (you probably can as well), but there is another definition that is not quite as clear
The phrase Kentish Fire is “prolonged cheering”
Our phrase came into English in the mid-1800s
In 1828-1829, a bill was proposed to remove discrimination against Catholics — called the Catholic Relief Bill. There were meetings held in which the proposed bill was read; in Kent, there was prolonged derisive “cheering” to show opposition to the bill. Not too many years after this, our word came into being.
Pronounced: KEN-tish fire, noun
Notes: I have not heard this phrase
The word saponaceous means “resembling or having the qualities of soap”
Our word came into English in the early 1700s
Our word came from the New Latin word saponaceus (soapy), which came from the Latin word sapon, which is a stem of sapo (soap). The original meaning was for soapy things found in nature, such as aloe gel. In the 1800s, our word began to be used to describe people having a slippery, evasive, or elusive characters.
Pronounced: sa-puh-NAY-shuhs
Notes: Neat word, but probably of limited use
The word autokinesy means “self-propelled or self-directed motion or energy”
Our word came into English in the late 1600s
Our word came from the Greek words auto- (self) and kinein (to move). I recognized the auto- prefix when I saw the word, but I did not recognize the other part when I first saw our word. I should have recognized the second part – the same source as our word “kinetic”.
Pronounced: au-toe-KIN-uh-see, noun
Notes: Another word that is new to me
The word sprachgefühl means
Our word came into English in the late 1800s
Our word comes (as you might think) from German – the word Sprache (language; speech) and Gefühl (feeling). Because nouns are capitalized in German, our word is sometimes written capitalized. Our word is relatively rare, making infrequent appearances in English.
Pronounced: SHRPAHK-guh-fuel, noun
Notes: This word is a new one to me
The word approbation is “approval, praise, commendation, or official sanction”
Our word came into English in the late 1300s
I thought our word meant something like disapproval, but that is clearly wrong: it came from the Latin word approbation, which is made up of ad- (toward) and probatus, which came from probare (to test the goodness of).
Richard's Vocabulary Word-of-the-Day