antimacassar

Pronounced: an-tih-mus-KASS-suhr, noun

Notes: I recognize our word, but not meaning (more tomorrow)

Yesterday’s word

The word luciferin is “any of various organic substances that upon oxidation produce a virtually heatless light” (such as the light fireflies produce).

First usage

Our word came into English in the late 1800s

Background / Comments

Many people know that Lucifer is a name for the devil; however, it is a Latin word meaning “light-bearing”. It means this because it is made up of luc- (light) and -fer (bearing; producing).

luciferin

Pronounced: loo-SIH-fruhn (alt: loo-SIH-fuh-run), noun

Notes: This word has nothing to do with the devil

Yesterday’s phrase

The phrase mala fide means “in bad faith”

First usage

Our word came into English in the mid-1500s

Background / Comments

As I noted yesterday, I was aware of the phrase bona fides (in good faith), but I didn’t know that this phrase existed. It came from the Latin phrase mala fide, made of maus (bad) and fides (faith).

mala fide

Pronounced: MAL-uh FIE-dee, adv/adj

Notes: I didn’t know this phrase existed, but perhaps you can work out the meaning?

Yesterday’s word

The word thew means

  • muscular power or development
  • strength, vitality
  • muscle, sinew (usually used in plural)
First usage

Our word came into English before 900

Background / Comments

I have a recollection of reading the phrase “smote (maybe ‘smite’) thew and sinew”, but I cannot recall where I ran across it. It is possible that my recollection is amiss. In any event, our word came from Middle English, where it could means “custom; habit; personal quality; or virtue”. Our word was falling out of fashion in the 1500s, but it acquired the meaning of physical strength, which changed to refer to the muscles that create physical strength. I’m told that it often paired with “sinew”, so perhaps I did read it somewhere.

thew

Pronounced: thoo, noun

Notes: I didn’t recognize this word by itself

Yesterday’s word

The word eviscerate means

  • to remove the entrails; to disembowel
  • to deprive of essential parts; to weaken or to destroy
First usage

Our word came into English in the early 1600s

Background / Comments

I seem to remember reading or hearing the word in some mystery story (or show); it may have been a Sherlock Holmes, but I think it one of the shows about Jack the Ripper, with a theoretical explanation. After reading the definition, I think I have run across the second definition, which clearly is a metaphorical extension of the first definition. Our word came from the Latin word eviscerare (to disembowel), which is made of ex- (out) and viscera (internal organs); the latter is the plural of the Latin word viscus (flesh; internal organ).

eviscerate

Pronounced: ih-VIS-uh-rate, verb

Notes: I kind of knew this word

Yesterday’s word

The word balletoname is “a devotee of ballet”

First usage

Our word came into English in the 1930s

Background / Comments

Because the word’s pronunciation begins “bah-LEH-tuh” and not “bahl-AYE”, I didn’t think of it being related to the ballet. I had guessed it might be related to “ballot”, but that was wrong. If you ignored the pronunciation and saw “ballet” and “mania” in our word, you’d be pretty close. The pronunciation is probably due the fact that our word came from the Russian word baletoman, which is a combination of balet (ballet) and -man — from maniya (mania). Oddly enough, neither “ballet” or “mania” came from Russian; “ballet” came from French, and into French from the Italian word balleto. The word “mania” came from Latin, which came from Greek. One more oddity about our word is the ending: most words for “lover of” use the suffix “-phile”.

balletomane

Pronounced: bah-LEH-tuh-mane, noun

Notes: Not what I thought after seeing the pronunciation

Yesterday’s word

The word enervate means, as a verb, “to deprive of strength or vitality”. As an adjective, it means “deprived of strength; weakened”

First usage

Our word came into English in the early 1600s

Background / Comments

For a long time, I thought our word meant something like “to get up the nerve (to)”. Our word came from the Latin word enervare (to weaken), which is made of ex- (out) and nervus (sinew).

enervate

Pronounced: EN-uhr-vate, verb; ih-NURR-vit, adj

Notes: One of those words in which the two parts of speech are pronounced differently

Yesterday’s word

The word meliorism is “the belief that the world tends to improve and that humans can aid its betterment”

First usage

Our word came into English in the late 1800s

Background / Comments

British novelist George Eliot (Mary Ann Evans) claimed to have created both our word and the word ‘meliorist’; however, the latter version had been around for decades. Nevertheless, she does get credit for the first documented use of our word. The word came from the Latin word melior (better). The same Latin word is behind the words ‘melioriate’ and ‘ameliorate’, both of which means “to make better”. As far as the belief goes, it is a nice, comforting belief; however, the Bible teaching that sin has brought a curse on both man and the earth, and that both are degrading over time would seem to fit better. Despite that, I do think that humans can choose to make the world better, so I agree with the last bit of our word’s definition.

meliorism

Pronounced: MEEL-yuh-rih-zuhm, noun

Notes: An interesting word, but I didn’t know it

Yesterday’s word

The word oppugn means “to call in question; to contradict; to dispute”

First usage

Our word came into English in the mid-1400s

Background / Comments

I had a kind of sense of the meaning, so my idea of “run down (as of someone’s character)” was pretty close. Our word came from the Latin word oppugnare (to fight or oppose), which came from ob- (against) and pugnare (to fight), which came from pugnus (fist).

oppugn

Pronounced: uh-PYOON, verb

Notes: I was pretty close to the meaning

Yesterday’s word

The word sockdolager is

  • something that settles a matter; a decisive blow or answer
  • something outstanding or exceptional
First usage

Our word came into English in the early to mid-1800s

Background / Comments

Our word is an Americanism; the theory is that it comes from the word sock (to punch) and a corruption of the word doxology – a stanza sung at the end of church services – and that the word thus meant “a blow that ends something”; much like we would use the term “knockout punch”. The reason I know the word is that a different form of it (sockdolagizing) was coined by a man named Tom Taylor for a play he had written called Our American Cousin. You may recognize the play: it is what Abraham Lincoln was watching at Ford’s Theater when he was shot. His assassin, John Wilkes Booth, knew the play: one of the lines (“Don’t know the manners of good society, eh? Well, guess I know enough to turn you inside out, old gal — you sockdolagizing old man-trap.”) received the biggest laugh of the play and John Wilkes Booth planned his attack to coincide with the line. Thus, it is possible that this word was one of the last words heard by our 16th President.

sockdolager

Pronounced: sock-DAH-lih-juhr, noun

Notes: This is a word I know of, but I didn’t know the definition – do you know it?

Yesterday’s word

The word precipitous means

  • resembling a precipice (a cliff with a nearly vertical overhanging face)
  • extremely steep
  • abrupt, rapid, or hasty (applied to a worsening situation)
First usage

Our word came into English in the mid-1600s

Background / Comments

I am familiar with the third definition (as in the phrase ‘let’s not take any precipitous actions’), but when I saw the first two definitions, they are logical, giving the related word precipitous. Our word came from the obsolete French word precipiteux, which came from the Latin word praécipitare (to cast down headlong), which is made up of prae- (before) and caput (head).