adust

Pronounced: uh-DUST, adj

Notes: The meaning is not at all what I thought it was

Yesterday’s word

The word manna is “an unexpected help, benefit, or advantage”

First usage

Our word came into English in the 400s

Background / Comments

Our word comes, as you will no doubt have guessed, from the Hebrew word man (manna). In the Bible, is was the food that God supplied to the Israelites for nearly their entire wilderness wandering. The Bible says that they called it “manna” because they didn’t know what it was. There are several interesting lessons regarding manna, but this isn’t the place for them. I was aware of the Biblical manna, but was unaware that it had acquired separate, modern meaning.

manna

Pronounced: MAN-uh, noun

Notes: I know what this is (originally), but I don’t know the meaning

Yesterday’s word

The word expiate means

  • to extinguish the guilt incurred by
  • to make amends for
First usage

Our word came into English in the late 1500s

Background / Comments

I was reaching back to the roots; I was thinking that our word means “to atone for”, and it turns out that our word came from the Latin word expiare (to atone for). In early English usage, it meant to ward off evil by means of some rite or rites. Alternatively, these rites could be used to cleanse or purify something, and this seems to be the sense we are left with today.

expiate

Pronounced: ECK-spee-ate, verb

Notes: My guess was close to the correct meaning

Yesterday’s word

The word exungulate means “to pare nails, claws, etc”

First usage

Our word came into English in the early 1600s

Background / Comments

Great word! How much more fun to say I was exungulating this morning instead of the rather prosaic I trimmed my nails this morning. Word-savvy people probably recognize “ungulate” part of our word. In fact, our word came from the Latin word exungulare (to lose the hoof), from ex- (out) and ungula (claw; nail; hoof; talon).

exungulate

Pronounced: ek-SUNG-uh-late, verb

Notes: Great word! (but not at all what I thought)

Yesterday’s word

The word fustian is

  • a strong cotton and linen fabric
  • high-flown or affected writing or speech, or even anything high-flown of affected in style
First usage

Our word came into English in two phases: the first definition arrived around 1200, but the second one didn’t come about until the 1500s.

Background / Comments

An early documented usage of the second meaning comes from the play Doctor Faustus by Christopher Marlow, written in 1592/1593. In Middle English, our word was fustian/fustain/fustein and came from the Old French word fustaigne. It came to Old French from Latin, but there is some disagreement about the origin.

fustian

Pronounced: FUSS-chun, noun

Notes: I think of “fussy” when I see this word, but that’s not the meaning

Yesterday’s word

The word leviathan is “something large and powerful”

First usage

Our word came into English in the late 1300s

Background / Comments

I thought that our word referred to some kind of sea creature; mainly due to remembered passages from the Bible that indicate it to be a water-based animal. I was not aware of the above meaning. Our word came into English from Latin, and came into Latin from the Hebrew word liwyathan (whale) — so, I knew more about the origin that I thought I did.

leviathan

Pronounced: lih-VIE-uh-thuhn, noun

Notes: I thought I knew the word, but my definition was a bit off

Yesterday’s word

The word stanch means

  • to check or stop the flowing of (such as blood from a wound)
  • to stop or check in its course
  • to make watertight; stop up
First usage

Our word came into English around 1300

Background / Comments

It turns out that “stanch” and “staunch” are not quite as separated as I thought; our word is a verb, and is most often spelled “stanch”, but “staunch” is an acceptable spelling. In the same way, the adjective “staunch” is most often spelled that way, but it is acceptable to spell it “stanch” — no wonder I get the word confused. Both words have a entwined etymology: our word came from the Middle English word stanchen (alt: staunchen), which came from the Old French word estanchier (to close; stop; slake [thirst]), which came, it is thought, from the Vulgar Latin word stanciere.

stanch

Pronounced: stawnch, verb

Notes: I have to confess that I confuse this word with “staunch”, but they are separate words

Yesterday’s word

The word tohobohu is “chaos; confusion”

First usage

Our word came into English in the early 1600s

Background / Comments

What a great word to use for chaos! Our word came from Hebrew tohu wa-bhohu, which is made from tohu (formlessness) and bhohu (emptiness).

tohubohu

Pronounced: TOE-hoo-boh-hoo, noun

Notes: A new word to me, but it is useful (it is a thing we encounter)

Yesterday’s word

The word callithump is “a noisy boisterous band or parade”

First usage

Our word came into English in the mid-1800s

Background / Comments

Our word is primarily used in America. In the 1800s, there were New Year’s parades by people with noisemakers (as opposed to genuine instruments) — we’re talking pots, pans, cowbells, and so on. This group of people were called “callithumpians” or a “callithumpian band”, and our word came to refer to the sound (noise?) that they made. The American word came from the British dialect word “Gallithumpians” (one can imagine how one could hear the “G” as a “C”) – these were a group who caused a ruckus during Parliamentary elections. It is thought that “Gallithumpians” were trying to make a noise to scare people from voting, as in a British dialect, gally means “to scare; to frighten”, thus gallicrow (scarecrow).

callithump

Pronounced: KAH-luh-thump, noun

Notes: I didn’t know this word, but the definition makes sense

Yesterday’s word

The word stygian means

  • dark or gloomy
  • hellish
  • unbreakable or completely binding (used when talking about oaths)
  • relating to the river Styx
First usage

Our word came into English in the mid-1500s

Background / Comments

I normally run across this word in the phrase “stygian darkness”, so I thought it meant especially black, which kind of fits the first definition above. I think I knew that our word was related to the river Styx in Greek mythology. Our word came from the Latin word Stygius, which came from the Greek word Stygios, which came from Styx (the hateful). The Styx was a river in the underworld over which souls of the dead were ferried by Charon. The reference information says that vows made by this river were considered to binding that even the Greek gods were afraid to break them. Another Greek myth was that the mother of Achilles dipped him in the river Styx to make him invulnerable; however, she held him by his heel, and it didn’t get dipped in the water, so he had that one vulnerable spot (and thus we get the phrase “Achilles heel” to mean a weakness). A very funny child’s misunderstanding of that story reads: “Achilles mother dipped him in the river Stynx and he became intolerable” – that always makes me laugh.

stygian

Pronounced: stygian, adj

Notes: Again a word I’ve run across, but didn’t properly know the definition, but I do have a related funny short tale.

Yesterday’s word

The word gelid means “extremely cold; icy”

First usage

Our word came into English in the late 1500s

Background / Comments

I was not aware that this word meant extremely cold; I though it meant “on the colder side”. In fact, it means anything with an extremely cold temperature. It can be used figuratively to mean a person with a “cold” demeanor. Our word came from the Latin word gelidus, which traces back to the noun gelu (frost; cold).