Richard's Vocabulary Word-of-the-Day

autolycan

Pronounced: ah-TAHL-uh-kuhn, adj

Notes: I’m a little surprised that this word was new to me

Yesterday’s word

The word misbegotten means

unlawfully conceived; illegitimate
having a disreputable or improper origin
not worthy of respect or approval

First usage

Our word came into English in the mid-1500s

Background / Comments

The only definition I knew was the third one; I have a faint memory of hearing it used in some old-time radio show; one character used used the word to describe things he didn’t think like (Whose misbegotten idea was this!?!?). After seeing the definitions, I realized that I should have been able to work out the first definition: after all, one of the most famous verses in the Bible is John 3:16 (For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten son…) contains the root word ‘begotten’ and I recognized the prefix mis- (wrong; bad; not). These two together should have given me the first definition. The second definition is clearly a generalization of the first definition… and, of course, the third is broader still.

misbegotten

Pronounced: miss-bih-GAH-tuhn, adj

Notes: I knew one of the definitions, but not all of them

Yesterday’s word

The word welter, as a noun, means

a confused mass; a jumble
a state of upheaval

As a verb, it means

to roll, writhe, or toss
to lie soaked in something, such as blood

First usage

Our word came into English in the very early 1400s

Background / Comments

Our word came from the Middle Dutch word welteren; possibly from the Middle Low German word weltern (to roll). I’m not sure why this word isn’t used more, but I don’t remember coming across us anywhere.

welter

Pronounced: WELL-tuhr, noun/verb

Notes: I was thinking of “welt” (and that was incorrect)

Yesterday’s word

The word bumbershoot means “umbrella” (as you may know)

First usage

Our word came into English in the very late 1800s

Background / Comments

When I saw this word, the UK came to mind; possibly because they have several nicknames for umbrellas, possibly because it rains a lot there. But I also thought of the film Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, but I didn’t know why. After some additional thought, it came to me that perhaps our word was used in the song “Me Ol’ Bamboo”. I looked up the song, and our word is indeed used: …you can have me hat or me bumbershoot, but ye better never bother with me ol’ bamboo! Getting back to nicknames, there is “brolly” (which I knew), and “gamp” (which I didn’t know; it comes from the Charles Dickens’s novel Martin Chuzzlewit, in which the character Sarah Gamp carried an oversized umbrella), and there is our word, which I was pretty sure was another nickname for umbrella. I included it because I enjoyed the background of our word: it is thought to be a combination of bumber- (thought to be a humorous corruption of the first part of umbrella [umber]) combined with -shoot (altered from “chute” – the umbrella looks like a tiny parachute).

bumbershoot

Pronounced: BUM-ber-shoot, noun

Notes: I knew this word, but it has an interesting background. Do you know the word?

Yesterday’s word

The word megrim can mean

low spirits (when pluralized)
whim
migraine

First usage

Our word is quite old; coming into English in the mid-1400s

Background / Comments

Our word is another one that was created in error; when we took the word into English from the French word migraine, the “in” was mistakenly thought to be the letter “m” — and thus the word was thought to be ‘megrame’, which was Anglicized as megrim. The word migraine came from the Latin word hemicrania (a pain in one side of the head), which came from the Greek words hemi- (half) and kranion (skull).

megrim

Pronounced: ME-grim, noun

Notes: Not a word I’ve heard

Yesterday’s word

The word Argus is a

hundred-eyed creature of Greek mythology
watchful guardian

First usage

Our word came into English in the early 1800s

Background / Comments

I think a lot of Victorian literature would fit our word; it’s is usually described as “flowery”, but from the examples I’ve seen, it would fit our word. Our word is named after the Spanish poet Luis de Góngora y Argote.