Richard's Vocabulary Word-of-the-Day
Words that I do not know
Pronounced: sub-REP-shun, noun
Notes: This word comes from my reading
The word farrago means “a confused mixture”
Our word came into English in the mid-1600s
As I noted yesterday, I’ve been mispronouncing this word; I thought it was “FAIR-uh-go”. I have read the word and had an idea of the meaning. Our word comes from the Latin word farrago (mixed fodder).
Pronounced: fuh-RAH-go, noun
Notes: I did not pronounce this word right, but I was close to the meaning
The word nescience means “lack of knowledge or awareness; ignorance”
Our word came into English in the early 1600s
I did not properly parse this word; for some reason, I thought that the prefix “ne-” or “nes-” means “new” and that error threw off what I thought was the meaning. Our word is a combination of the Latin prefix ne- (not) and scire (to know). Note that scire is also the ancestor of “science”, which originally meant “knowledge”.
Pronounced: NEH-shuns (alt: NEH-shunts; alt-2: NEH-she-uns; alt-3: NEH-she-unts), noun
Notes: I believe I’ve run across this word, but I didn’t know the meaning of it
The word rechauffe means
Our word came into English in the late 1700s
I love the idea of referring to leftovers as rechauffe; it quite elevates the meaning. Our word came from the French word réchauffé (reheated; rehashed), which came from chauffer (to warm), which came from the Latin word calefacere (to make warm), which came from calere (to be hot) combined with facere (to make).
Pronounced: ray-show-FAY, noun
Notes: A fun word to slip into conversation
The word raddled means
Our word came into English in the late 1600s
As you can see from the definitions above, the first one is about the same as the word “rattled”. Our word is the (much) older word; “rattled” did not show up until the early 1900s; I suspect that someone heard “raddled” and wrote “rattled” and thus a new word was formed. However, the second definition doesn’t really seem to fit; it is theorized that it comes from a red coloring used to mark animals; the coloring was called “raddle”. From this word raddled came to mean “heavily made up with rouge”; a person in such a state would look older and more haggard.
Pronounced: RAH-duhld, adj
Notes: Very interesting word; do you know it?
The word gratulate means
Our word came into English in the mid-1500s
So, which is older – gratulate or congratulate? It turns out that congratulate is slightly older (by about 20 years). Our word comes from the Latin word gratulari (to congratulate), from gratulari (to show joy), which comes from gratus (pleasing).
Pronounced: GRACH-uh-late, verb
Notes: This word may look nearly familiar
The word mélange is “a mixture often of incongruous elements”
Our word came into English in the 1600s
Our word comes from the Middle French word mesler (to mix).
Pronounced: may-LAHNZH, noun
Notes: I think I’ve seen this word in writing, but I didn’t know the meaning
The word suage means “to make something unpleasant less severe; to assuage”
Our word came into English in the very early 1400s
Our word comes from the Latin word suavis (sweet). I am familiar with “assuage”, and it turns that that “assuage” is the older word by 100-150 years.
Pronounced: swaz, verb
Notes: I just see the word “usage” scrambled a bit, but that’s not helpful
The word farrier is “a person who shoes horses”
Our word came into English around 1400 (late 1300s to the early 1400s)
When I think of shoeing horses, I think of a blacksmith – however, a farrier is a specific type of blacksmith and a bit more: not only does a farrier make the horseshoes and put them on the horse, he also cleans, trims, and shapes a horse’s hooves. Our word is slightly more common in the UK than in America. When our word first appeared, it not only referred to someone who shoed horses, but also provided general veterinary care. Our word first appeared as ferrour, which came from the Anglo-French noun ferrour (a blacksmith who shoes horses), which came from the verb ferrer (to shoe horses), which ultimately came from the Latin word ferrum (iron).
Pronounced: FAIR-ee-uhr, noun
Notes: Many people may know this word; I’ve run across it, but was not certain
The word plaint means “complaint” or “protest” or “lamentation”.
Our word came into English in the early 1200s (quite an old word!)
Like you, I am familiar with the synonym “complaint”, but not our word; it comes from the Old French word plainte (complaint; cry), which came from the Latin noun planctus (lamentation), which comes from the verb plangere (to beat one’s breast).
Pronounced: plaint, noun
Notes: I know some other forms of this word, but not this word
The word feckless means
Our word came into English in the very late 1500s
My memory was correct; I associated our word with the first Doctor Who show with Colin Baker in the title row. I thought I remembered the phrase “feckless charm”… after doing some research, that memory is correct; he does indeed use that phrase. The phrase was not used in a complimentary way, but I did not look up the definition. Of course, one could provide a useless or unhelpful definition for our word as: “lacking in feck”. The word feck is Scottish and is an alteration of the Middle English word “effect”. Thus, something “lacking in feck” is “lacking in effect” or “ineffective”. There was also a word feckful (efficient; sturdy; powerful), but it is not used much anymore.
Richard's Vocabulary Word-of-the-Day