Richard's Vocabulary Word-of-the-Day
Words that I do not know
Pronounced: MAN(T)-swih-tood, noun
Notes: This word sounds familiar, but I don’t remember running across it
The word double-dome means “an intellectual”
Our word came into English in the 1930s
It’s nice to have an alternative word for “intellectual”. Our word was merely a combination of double (two) and dome (slang for head). I guess it means that a person is so smart he has twice the brains of normal people.
Pronounced: (duh) double-dome, noun
Notes: I have not heard this term – have you?
The word schadenfreude is “enjoyment obtained from the troubles of others”
Our word came into English in the late 1800s
Our word came (as you probably guessed) from the German word Schadenfreude, which is composed of the words Schaden (damage; harm) and Freude (joy). (I think I have previously mentioned that nouns in German are capitalized). An archbishop, Richard Trench, once commented – before the word came into English – “What a fearful thing is it that any language should have a word expressive of the pleasure which men feel at the calamities of others”. Of course some “calamities” are described for comic effect, begging for laughter. I remember watching sitcoms long ago that often would use comedic calamities. So, perhaps I was guilty of shadenfreude?
Pronounced: SHAW-d(uh)n-froy-duh, noun
Notes: The word is familiar, but I was not sure of the definition
The word blackleg means
Our word came into English in the early 1700s
I was a bit curious about the first definition; I thought such a person was called a “scan”; it turns out that our word is more commonly used in the UK. The origin of the first two terms above is unclear; the diseases were called that because the legs may look black on cattle or sheep; on plants, the stem has black spots.
Pronounced: BLACK-leg, noun
Notes: I have no memory of this word
The word meed is “a fitting return or recompense”
Our word goes back a long way; it was in use before 900
People aren’t sure how old our word is; an Old English form appeared in Beowulf. It has relatives in Old High German,Old Swedish, and ancient Greek.
Pronounced: meed, noun
Notes: Such a short word, yet I did not know it
The word longhair is
Our word came into English in the late 1800s
The second definition is the only one I really knew; I have heard classical music referred to as “longhair” music, but I never really understood why until I saw the list above. Presumably, it grew out of the idea that classical music is attractive to intellectuals (our word’s first definition). Since it was music they liked, our word came to refer to those who liked classical music. The third and fourth definition are a bit of a cheat to my way of thinking. I’ve heard hippies described as having “long hair”, but I’ve never heard our word used instead of “hippie”. Likewise, I’ve heard people talk about longhair cats (where our word is an adjective), but not as a noun to refer to them.
Pronounced: LONG-hair (duh), noun
Notes: I knew one of the definition; some of the others are obvious
The word eristic means “characterized by disputatious and often subtle and specious reasoning”
Our word came into English in the mid-1600s
Our word can also take the form “eristical”, although this form is less common; possibly obsolete. The word ‘specious’ in the definition above makes our word a negative way to describe someone — it’s one thing to enjoy arguing, but it is another for the argument not to be logical. Our word came from the Greek word eristikos (fond of wrangling), which came from erizein (to wrangle), and eventually traces back to eris (strife).
Pronounced: ih-RIH-stick, adj
Notes: Good word, but I don’t think I know it
The word tribology is “the study of interacting surfaces in relative motion and associated issues, such as friction, lubrication, and wear”.
Our word came into English in the 1960s
Your misunderstanding of this word depends upon how the first syllable is pronounced; before I looked, I thought “trih”, and thought of “tribbles”, which I knew it wasn’t, since tribbles are a work of fiction. If you pronounced it “try”, you could logically think it is the study of tribes. As I understand it, a group of engineers working with lubrication wanted a fancier name for what they did, and one of the editors of the Oxford English Dictionary came up with our word. It came from the Greek word tribos (rubbing), which came from tribein (to rub).
Pronounced: try-BOL-uh-jee (alt: trih-BOL-uh-jee), noun
Notes: Not the study of tribbles, nor even of tribes
The phrase beau geste is
Our phrase came into English in the early 1900s
I knew there was a book called Beau Geste, and I knew the general plot, but I didn’t know that it was written by Percival Christopher Wren and published in 1924 — our phrase was in use before the book came out. There were several films made of the story; I think I may have seen one of them. This publicity helped make the phrase popular. It came from French; the phrase literally means “beautiful gesture”.
Pronounced: boh-ZHEST, noun
Notes: I know something of this word, but not the definition
The word limpid means
Our word came into English in the early 1600s
I have read a phrase something like “she gave him a limpid look”, so I had the idea that the word meant something like ‘innocent’. Our word came from the Latin word limpidus (clear).
Pronounced: LIM-pid, adj
Notes: I knew some of the meanings, but not all of them
The word adust means “scorched; burned”
Our word came into English in the early 1400s
Well, I thought our word meant “dusty” or “full of dust”. Our word comes from the Latin word adustus, the past participle of adurere (to set fire to). When the word first came into English, it was a medical term related to the four bodily humors (black bile, blood, phlegm, and yellow file). Our word was used to describe a (supposed) condition of the humors in which they because heated or combusted; specifically “adust black bile” was thought to be the source of melancholy. Hence, another – now archaic – definition of our word was “of a gloomy appearance or disposition”.
Richard's Vocabulary Word-of-the-Day