Category Archives: word

Pronounced: POL-ih-tick, verb Notes: You probably know this word; I’ll talk more about tomorrow Yesterday’s word The word meta means “of, or related to, a story, play, film or character that consciously references its own subject” First usage This may be the most recent word; the reference material says it came into usage in theContinue reading “politick”

Pronounced: MEH-tuh, adj Notes: The vocabulary reference I took this from says it is pronounced “MEE-tuh”; however, this particular reference seems to be riddled with errors; I’ve always heard it pronounced “MEH-tuh”. In addition, no web site I checked has it as “MEE-tuh”, so I think this is just another error. Yesterday’s word The wordContinue reading “meta”

Pronounced: ih-MAY-go (alt: ih-MAH-go), noun Notes: Interesting plural: imagines (ih-MAY-guh-neez); can also use the (expected) imagoes Yesterday’s word The word bel-esprit means “a person of great wit or intellect; a witty or clever person” First usage Our word came into English in the mid-1600s Background / Comments A nice word to use to as anContinue reading “imago”

Pronounced: bell-es-PREE, noun Notes: Another word I don’t know (but a good one) Yesterday’s word The word ecdysis is “the shedding of an outer layer; molting” First usage This word came into English in the mid-1800s Background / Comments Our word came from the Greek word ekdysis, which is from ekdyein (to take off), whichContinue reading “bel-esprit”

Pronounced: EK-duh-sis, noun Notes: I’m pretty sure I have run across this word, but I could not recall the definition Yesterday’s word The word meliorism means “the belief that the world can be made better and improved by concentrated effort and diligent work” First usage Our word came into English in the mid-1800s Background /Continue reading “ecdysis”

Pronounced: MEAL-yuh-riz-uhm (alt: MEE-lee-uh-riz-uhm), noun Notes: Nice word, but I didn’t know it Yesterday’s word The word earwig means, as a noun, “any of various insects of the order Dermaptera, having a pair of pincers at the rear of the abdomen”. As a verb, it means to influence or bias a person by insinuations toContinue reading “meliorism”

Pronounced: EAR-wig, noun/verb Notes: I had a faint idea of the meaning of the noun form, but no clue concerning the verb form Yesterday’s word The word xyst means “a garden walkway planted and bordered with trees” First usage Our word came into English in the mid-1600s Background / Comments Our word comes from theContinue reading “earwig”

Pronounced: zist, noun Notes: This looks like a pretty good scrabble word! Yesterday’s word The word miscible means “capable of being mixed together” First usage This word came into English in the mid-1500s Background / Comments Our word comes from the Latin word miscere (to mix). As I noted yesterday, this word is one I’veContinue reading “xyst”

Pronounced: MIS-uh-bull, adj Notes: This is a word I learned from my vocabulary sources. I didn’t know it when I first encountered it, but I’ve learned it. It was marginal as to whether or not to post it, but since I didn’t originally know it, I decided to go ahead and post it. Yesterday’s wordContinue reading “miscible”

Pronounced: NO-mist, noun Notes: Nothing to do with gnomes, at least by the definition Yesterday’s word The word bromidic means “commonplace; trite” First usage Our word came into English in the early 1900s Background / Comments Another great word to sprinkle (or “sparge” [heh, see yesterday’s comments]) into my conversation. Our word comes from theContinue reading “gnomist”