Category Archives: word

Pronounced: fyoo-TUR-eh-tee, noun Notes: Although you may be able to guess the definition, I didn’t know that this word existed Yesterday’s word The word refection is First usage Our word came into English in the late 1300s Background / Comments Our word came from French — and into French from the Latin word reficere (toContinue reading “futurity”

Pronounced: rih-FECK-shun, noun Notes: This is not a misspelling of “reflection”, but a different word entirely Yesterday’s word The word totem is First usage Our word came into English in Background / Comments I thought our word was just short for a “totem pole”, but clearly that isn’t the case. After reading the definition, itContinue reading “refection”

Pronounced: TOE-tum, noun Notes: I thought I knew the meaning of this word, but I didn’t Yesterday’s word The word tegular means “relating to, resembling, or arranged like tiles” First usage Our word came into English in the mid-1800s Background / Comments Our word came from the Latin word tegula (tile), which came from tegereContinue reading “totem”

Pronounced: TEG-yuh-luhr, adj Notes: Not what I thought (and NOT a misspelling of “regular”) Yesterday’s word The word biannual means First usage Our word came into English in the late 1800s Background / Comments Just like “biweekly”, our word can have different meanings. Some people teach that “semiannual” should be used for things that occurContinue reading “tegular”

Pronounced: by-AN-yuhl (alt: by-AN-yuh-wuhl), adj Notes: I was not aware of both pronunciations; I use the second one Yesterday’s word The word cordate means “heart-shaped” First usage Our word came into English in the mid-1600s Background / Comments After reading the definition, I realized that I could have guessed the meaning. Our word came fromContinue reading “biannual”

Pronounced: cordate Notes: I didn’t correctly guess the meaning, but you may be able to Yesterday’s word The word aggress means “to make an attack; to act aggressively” First usage Our word came into English in the mid-1500s Background / Comments The words “aggressive” and “aggression” are much more familiar (I didn’t know that thereContinue reading “cordate”

Pronounced: uh-GRESS, verb Notes: I didn’t know this word existed, but you can probably guess the meaning Yesterday’s word The word amaneunsis is “a person employed to take dictation or to copy manuscripts” First usage Our word came into English in the early 1600s Background / Comments I happen to know the word from someContinue reading “aggress”

Pronounced: uh-man-yoo-EN-sis, noun Notes: I don’t think this word is well known, but I happen to know it Yesterday’s word The word organoleptic means First usage Our word came into English in the mid-1800s Background / Comments Our word came from the French word organoleptique — our spelling is an Anglicization of it — andContinue reading “amaneunsis”

Pronounced: or-guh-no-LEP-tick, adj Notes: Well, my guess was quite incorrect (it has nothing to do with playing organs) Yesterday’s word The word Malthusian means “relating to the view that population increases faster than its means of subsistence resulting in disaster, unless population is checked by natural calamities or by people deciding to have fewer children”Continue reading “organoleptic”

Pronounced: mal-THOO-zhuhn (alt: mal-THOO-zee-uhn), adj Notes: I didn’t know this word, and could not guess at a meaning Yesterday’s word The word corrigendum is “an error in a printed work discovered after printing and shown with its correction on a separate sheet” First usage Our word came into English in the mid-1800s Background / CommentsContinue reading “Malthusian”