Richard's Vocabulary Word-of-the-Day
Words that I do not know
Pronounced: [as it looks], noun
Notes: Not the meaning I thought
The word kenning is “a figurative, usually compound, expression used to describe something. As an example, the use of “whale road” to mean an ocean.
Our word came into English in the early 1300s
Our word comes from the Old Norse word kenna (to know). Kennings were used quite a bit in poetry written in Old Norse and Old English.
Pronounced: KEN-ing, noun
Notes: This word is not what I thought it was
The word withy means
Our word came into English before the year 1000
In read the definition of our word, I learned a new word – that word is “osier”, and it refers to a certain type of willow, used for wickerwork. Our word came from the Old English word wīthig, which came from the Old Norse word vīthir, which came from Old High German wīda, which comes from Greek ītéa (willow), which comes from the Latin word vītis (vine).
Pronounced: WIH-thee, noun
Notes: Another word I’ve never run across
The capriole means
Our word came into English in the late 1500s
Our word came either from the Middle French word capriole (caper) or the Italian word capriola (leap). They came from the Latin word capreolus (goat), which is a diminutive of caper (goat).
Pronounced: CAP-ree-ol, noun
Notes: I did not know this word
The word contumely is “harsh language or treatment arising from haughtiness and contempt”
Our word came into English in the late 1300s
If you know Shakespeare well, you may have known our word. It occurs in the famous “To be or not to be” speech of Hamlet. It also occurs in the Canterbury Tales (The Parson’s Tale). Our word was at first spelled contumelie; it came from Middle French, which came from the Latin word contumelia.
Pronounced: kahn-TOO-muh-lee, noun
Notes: I have run across this word (or a close relative), but I couldn’t properly define it
The word winkle means, as a noun, “a periwinkle, any of various mollusks with a spiral shell”. As a verb, it means “to extract with difficulty”.
Our word came into English in the late 1500s
As I noted yesterday, I have run across our word as a verb, but the noun was not known. In a similar vein, the background of the noun is not known. The verb comes from the process of extracting a periwinkle from its shell with a pin for eating its meat.
Pronounced: WING-kuhl, noun/verb
Notes: I knew the verb meaning, but not the noun
The word presage means
Our word came into English in the mid- to late 1300s
Our word – the verb presage – was predated by a noun presage (omen). Our word comes from the Latin prefix prae- and the adjective sagus (prophetic).
Pronounced: PREH-sij, verb
Notes: Another word I don’t recall having seen (and my guess was way off)
The word pullulate means
Our word came into English in the early 1600s
Our word came from the Latin word pullulare (to sprout), which came from pullulus, which is a diminutive of pullus (chicken; young animal), which came from pullus (young animal).
Pronounced: PULL-yuh-late, verb
Notes: A new word for me
The word fructuous means “fruitful”
Our word came into English in the mid- to late 1300s
I had the meaning wrong because when I saw our word, I saw a similarity to the word “fractious”; had I thought of the word “fructose”, I would have been on the proper track to the right definition. Our word came from the Latin word fructus (fruit; enjoyment; use). The word fructose does comes from this root, as does usufruct (the right to use or enjoy something).
Pronounced: FREK-chuh-wuhs, adj
Notes: I didn’t get this word right; you may know it
The word magpie means
Our word came into English in the late 1500s
I knew of the bird definition; I also knew of the collector meaning (a more widely used synonym is “packrat”); however, the second meaning was unknown to me. Both the second and third meanings came about because of a supposed reputation of magpies for chattering and for hoarding. Our word actually comes from Mag (short for Margaret) combined with pie, which came from the Latin word pica (magpie). I’ve no idea why Margaret was used (perhaps is was a very common name when the word was being formed)…the idea was the stereotypical notion that women chatter. Thus the name came to be attached to the bird; it had a reputation as a chatterer, and thus the second meaning came into being – seems rather like circular reasoning to me.
Pronounced: MAG-pie
Notes: I knew some of the meanings, but not all of them
The word trattoria means “a restaurant; specifically a usually small Italian restaurant”
Our word came into English in the mid-1800s
In thinking about our word, I don’t think I have run across it – the reason it seemed familiar is that in the Nero Wolfe book Some Buried Caesar, there is a chain of restaurants called “prattorias”, and this is why I thought our word was familiar. In Italian, trattore is the word for an innkeeper or restaurant owner. That word comes from the Old French verb traitier (to treat); it comes from the Latin word tractare (to drag about; handle; deal with). In addition to our word, there are other words that refer to a special eatery: brasserie (from French in the mid-1800s), bistro (from French in the 1920s), and taqueria (from Mexican Spanish in the 1980s).
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