Category Archives: word

Pronounced: this word is pronounced like “whale”, noun/verb Notes: A nice, short word that I didn’t know Yesterday’s word The word Byzantine, when capitalized means “of, relating to, or typical of ancient Byzantium or the Eastern Roman Empire”. Another meaning, usually not capitalized, means “intricately involved and often devious”. Background / Comments It is namedContinue reading “wale”

Pronounced: BIH-zuhn-teen, adj (the vowel in “zuhn” is almost not pronounced) Notes: This word can also be lowercase (byzantine); I almost didn’t include this word Yesterday’s word The word dree means (as a verb) “to endure or suffer”. As an adjective, it means “tedious or dreary” Background / Comments The word comes from Old EnglishContinue reading “Byzantine”

Pronounced: dree, verb/adj Notes: I have run across this word in the phrase “to dree one’s weird”, but I didn’t know the meaning of the phrase, and thus didn’t know the word Yesterday’s word The word dernier cri means “the newest fashion” (given the example, I would have used “fad” or “popular thing” instead ofContinue reading “dree”

Pronounced: dern-yay-KREE, noun Notes: a fancy word for something… do you know it? Yesterday’s word The word slue means, as a verb, “to turn, swing, or slide in a particular direction”. As a noun, it means such a turn, swing, or slide. Background / Comments It turns out that the origin of this word isContinue reading “dernier cri”

Pronounced: sloo, verb/noun Notes: I didn’t know this word Yesterday’s word The word confabulate means to talk informally; chat to hold a discussion; confer to fill in gaps in memory by fabrication Background / Comments My guess at the meaning of the word was pretty close to the first two definitions; however, the third meaningContinue reading “slue”

Pronounced: kuhn-FAH-byoo-late, verb Notes: This word has one meaning that I didn’t know; I had an idea of the others Yesterday’s word The word phillumenist means “a collector of matchboxes, matchbooks, or their labels” Background / Comments I had no idea that there was a word for a matchbook collector. This word has a mixedContinue reading “confabulate”

Pronounced: fi-LOO-muh-nist, noun Notes: This is another word that I didn’t know existed Yesterday’s word The word interstice means: space that intervenes between things; especially, one between closely space things a short space of time between events Background / Comments I had a clue to the meaning of this word from the a classic DrContinue reading “phillumenist”

Pronounced: in-TER-stuhs, noun Notes: I know a related word, and was close (but not quite right) with the definition Yesterday’s word The word virilocal means “relating to the custom of living with the family of the husband” Background / Comments As I said yesterday, I had no idea that there was a word for thisContinue reading “interstice”

Pronounced: vir-ih-LOCK-uhl, adj Notes: I didn’t know that there was a word for this Yesterday’s word The word pandect means a complete code of the laws of a country or system of law a treatise covering an entire subject Background / Comments The original pandect was the Pandectae, a 50-volume digest of Roman civil lawContinue reading “virilocal”

Pronounced: PAN-dekt, noun Notes: I had no idea of the meaning of this word Yesterday’s word The word cynophobia means “fear of dogs” Background / Comments The word comes from Greek — from the words kyon (dog) and -phobia (fear). First usage This word came into use in the late 1800s