Category Archives: word

Pronounced: FIM-bree-ay-tuh, adj Notes: Some crafty people may know this word — I didn’t Yesterday’s word The word sagamore means “a chief or leader” Background / Comments The word comes from the Indian (that is, Native American) Eastern Abenaki word sakama. First usage This word showed up in the early 1600s Rejected word I don’tContinue reading “fimbriated”

Pronounced: SAG-uh-more, noun Notes: A handy word to know Yesterday’s phrase The phrase white elephant means a property requiring much care and expense and yielding little profit an object no longer of value to its owner but of value to others Background / Comments The original white elephant was a sacred animal in India, SriContinue reading “sagamore”

Pronounced as you expect Notes: I very nearly left this word out of the list, because I know the meaning, but I didn’t have a clear understanding of the origin, and I found it interesting. Yesterday’s word The word coffle means “a line of slaves or animals fastened together” Background This word comes from theContinue reading “white elephant”

Pronounced: KAW-full, noun Notes: An unknown word to me Yesterday’s word The word cornpone means (an an adjective) “rustic; folksy; countrified”. As a noun, it is “unleavened born bread, baked or fried”. Background / Comments This word is combination of the English word corn with the Virginia Algonquian word apones (bread) First usage This wordContinue reading “coffle”

Pronounced: CORN-pone, adj/noun Notes: After reading the adjective definition, I think I ran across this years ago, but since I could not define it, it qualifies for this list. Yesterday’s word The word scarify means to make scratches or small cuts in to lacerate the feelings of to cut or soften the wall of (aContinue reading “cornpone”

Pronounced: SKER-uh-fie, verb Notes: I didn’t know this word, and my guess that it was related to “scare” was wrong Yesterday’s word The word backronym refers to “a word re-interpreted an an acronym” Background / Comments The word is a blend of “back” + “acronym”. It is taking a word and pretending that it isContinue reading “scarify”

Pronounced: BACK-roe-nim, noun Notes: I’ve run across this word, but couldn’t define it to my satisfaction Yesterday’s word The word bright-line means “providing an unambiguous criterion or guideline – especially in the law Background / Comments This word began in courts in the first half of the 1900s; they described whether or not a “brightContinue reading “backronym”

Pronounced: As expected: BRITE-line, adj Notes: I assume lawyers don’t enjoy this descriptive word Yesterday’s word The word acecdata means “anecdotal information gleaned from casual information” Background / Comments This word is a blend of anecdotal and data. The source of anecdotal is Greek from anekdota (things unpublished), and that word is composed of an-Continue reading “bright-line”

Pronounced: an-ik-DAY-tuh, noun Notes: I’ve not run across this word before Yesterday’s word The word eidetic means “marked by or involving extraordinarily accurate and vivid recall – especially of visual images”. Background / Comments This word is most frequently used with memory as a technical description of what is commonly called “photographic memory”. The wordContinue reading “anecdata”

Pronounced: aye-DEH-tick, adj Notes: I usually only hear the phrase ‘eidetic memory’, so I wasn’t sure what this word actually meant by itself. Yesterday’s word The word quincentenary means, as a noun, “a 500th anniversary”; as an adjective, it means “of or relating to a 500th anniversary”. Background / Comments This word has a mixedContinue reading “eidetic”