Interesting words: Distaff

Distaff is an interesting word because it is both a noun and an adjective, but the two are, at first glance, rather unrelated.

The noun is part of the technology of spinning cloth - it is a staff for holding material.  The adjective means "pertaining to women".

According to the Online Etymology Dictionary, distaff is from Low German diesse meaning flax and staef meaning stick or staff. The adjectival form is through the word spindle.  In Old English, there were words spinelhealf and sperehealf meaning the female and male lines of descent, respectively.

Distaff is a fairly rare word, about 1 in every 5,500,000 words, per Google ngram viewer. It is also declining in popularity.

Interesting words: Gelid

Gelid is an adjective meaning, per Merriam Webster online:

Extremely cold, icy.

The origin of gelid is Latin gelidus which means very cold (see Online Etymology Dictionary).  It is a rare word, about 1 in 39,000,000 per Google Ngram viewer (in comparison "icy" is about 1 in 282,000, "frigid" about 1 in 1,000,000 and "cold" a whopping 1 in 15.000).

So, why use "gelid"?  One reason is to avoid using "very" or "extremely" - so, rather than "very cold" we can use "gelid".  "Frigid" also means "very cold" but I think some of the connotations are different. In particular, "frigid" can mean "extremely uninterested in sex" which "gelid" cannot. And "gelid" has the connotation of "almost frozen".

I read gelid in Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson. 

Interesting words: Akrasia

Word: Akrasia
Prounciation: Uh, craze, eee, uh   OR uh, crez, ee, uh
Definition: Akrasia is the state of mind in which you act against your own better judgement because of "weakness of will".
Etymology: From Greek  a- (without) and kratos (power)
Frequency: About 1 in 12,000,000 words.
Why use it:  First, it's a word for an entire state of mind - one that lots of us have felt; it's the "I couldn't help myself" feeling.  But you can say "I was akrastic".  Sounds so much better.  Second, it's useful in philosophy because it raises interesting questions about deliberation and choice and free will and so on.

Interesting words: Weal

Word: weal
Pronunciation: rhymes with heal
Origin:  Per the Online Etymology Dictionary, weal comes from old English wela which meant wealth and earlier from old Germanic welon. 

Meaning: According to Merriam Webster weal is a noun meaning:

a sound, healthy, or prosperous state

Why use it? What else means this? A nice, simple, short word that captures a slightly complex concept

Frequency:  Per Google ngram viewer, about 1 in every 2.8 million words.

Interesting words: Contumely

Word: Contumely
Pronunciation:  Rhymes with Don whom see

Origin:  Per the Online Etymology Dictionary, contumely comes from Latin contumelia "an insult" via old French contumelie.
Meaning: According to Merriam-Webster, contumely is a noun meaning:

harsh language or treatment arising from haughtiness and contempt; also : an instance of such language or treatment

Why use it?  First, although it's a very rare word, it's relatively well-known from Shakespeare's Hamlet, Act III, scene 1:

For who would bear the whips and scorns of time,

Th' oppressor’s wrong, the proud man’s contumely,

which is part of perhaps the most famous passage in all of Shakespeare - the "to be or not to be" soliloquy.

Second, it's more precise than "insult" or "scorn".  It refers to a particular type of foul treatment.


Frequency: About 1 in every 15,200,000 words

Interesting words: Querulous

Word: Querulous
Pronunciation: Qwer - yeh - lus
Etymology:  Per the Online Etymology Dictionary, querulous comes from Old French querelos which meant "quarrelsome, argumentative" and earlier from Latin querulus "full of complaints".

Definition:  Querulous, according to Merriam Webster, means "habitually complaining" particularly by whining.
Why use it?  I think we all know someone who is querulous.  At least, with the word, we can describe their annoying behavior precisely.  While there are many words that have similar meanings (e.g. whiny, complaining) querulous captures a set of behaviors that tend to go together. 
Frequency of use: About 1 in 3.1 million words.

Yiddish words: Kvell

Word: Kvell
Pronunciation: Rhymes with yell
Meaning: The main meaning of kvell  is to beam with immense pride, most commonly because of something your children or grandchildren did (or that you imagined they did or will do). The classic joke (which I read in The Joys of Yiddish, by Leo Rosten, but have heard from several sources) is that two women who were friends in college meet on the street. One of them has a stroller with two babies.

"Shirley! You have kids! They're beautiful. How old are they?"
"The doctor is three and the lawyer is two".

But kvell can also mean to gloat over the misfortunes of an enemy.

Yiddish words: Naches

Word: Naches
Pronunciation: Rhymes with Loch Ness (with a Scottish/Yiddish ch)
Meaning: Yesterday's word was kvell  so today it's natural to define "naches".  The two words go together like chickens and eggs.

Naches is pride. But not usually pride in yourself, but in what your offspring (or other relatives) have done.
The reputation of Jews is that we are very good at getting naches from our kids, and very good at expecting kids to give naches to us.

The same parent who brags to all her (or his) friends about a child that got a 99 on a test will ask the child where the other point is. At least, that's the stereotype. I've certainly known Jews who were like this, but I try not to be with my kids.

Yiddish words: Pisher

Word: Pisher
Prounciation: Rhymes with wisher
Meaning: Pisher means one who urinates. But it is usually used in the phrase "a little pisher" which means either a) A child who is not toilet trained yet or b) A clever child; this can be used as an exclamation after a kid does something clever, and especially something sneakily clever. This isn't what you'd say when your kid brings home a great report card, it's got a tinge of sarcasm to it. A friend of mine had a son who, at age 6 or so, had cornered the market in his school on Pokemon cards - what a pisher!

Of course there's a joke about pisher:

A man is up for a promotion, and is scheduled to be interviewed by Mr. Jacques LaFontaine. He's a bit nervous, but then his friend points out that LaFontaine's father was named Jack Spritzwasser and his grandfather was Yaakov Pisher.

Interesting words: Effulgence

The word:Effulgence

Definition: According to Dictionary.com, effulgence means:

a brilliant radiance; a shining forth.

There is an adjectival form: Effulgent. 

Origin: From Latin effulgentum "to shine".

Why use it?  Both the noun and the adjective are more specific than "shiny" or "shining" or "radiant".  Both shiny and radiant have other meanings, which effulgence does not.

 

Interesting words: Solecism

Solecism, according to Merriam Webster, is a noun and has 3 definitions:

1 : an ungrammatical combination of words in a sentence; also : a minor blunder in speech

2 : something deviating from the proper, normal, or accepted order

3 : a breach of etiquette or decorum

these are clearly all related and differ mainly in how specific they are; the first is quite narrow, the second quite broad and the third is in the middle.  The Oxford dictionary does not include the 2nd, broadest definition.

Using the first definition, it's shorter than "grammatical error" and more specific than "error" without qualification. Also, solecism is just a cool word.

It comes from Greek solokismos, which is from the Greek soloikos which means "speaking incorrectly", giving more weight to the first definition. It's quite a rare word, and is getting rarer.  It is now used about 1 in every 16 million word. For reference, "error" is used 1 in every 17 thousand words.

So, don't commit a solecism by failing to use solecism!

Some new words: The under words

There are some words we need but don't have.  One set of these are the opposite of words starting in over-.  Some of these do exist.  The opposite of overestimate is underestimate, just as an example.

But what about:

• Underslept - which is the opposite of overslept.  As in "I'm sorry I'm so tired but I underslept last night". 
• Undereat - "How did you lose weight?" "I underate."
• Underanalyze - "Why didn't you understand what I meant instead of just what I said?"  "I guess I underanalyzed it, sorry.
• "Overcapable" means too capable.  But, right now, a lot of people think we have a president who is undercapable.
•  "How do you always have so much free time?"  "I undercommit myself".

What other under words do we need?

Interesting words: Bibulous

Bibulous is an adjective that, according to Merriam Webster, means:

1 : highly absorbent

2 a : fond of alcoholic beverages

b : of, relating to, or marked by the consumption of alcoholic beverages

I admit to never having seen the first usage, it seems to mainly be used in medical literature.

It's been used in English for quite a while; according to the Online Etymology Dictionary it was first used in the 1670s and comes from Latin bibulous meaning "drinking readily". It's a pretty rare word, occurring just 1 in about 24,000,000 words per Ngram viewer (for instance, "drunk" occurs once in every 90,000 words) but I think it's highly useful.

(image from By Achim Raschka (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons)

Interesting words: Impression vs. impersonation

The other day we (my wife, son and me) were discussing the difference between an impersonation of someone and an impression of someone. So, I decided to look it up.

According to Merriam Webster, the relevant definition of impression is:

an imitation or representation of salient features in an artistic or theatrical medium; especially : an imitation in caricature of a noted personality as a form of theatrical entertainment

while to impersonate is

to assume or act the character of

I think the key difference is how much you are trying to fool people (perhaps even yourself). When someone does an impression of some famous person, no one is really fooled. When Alec Baldwin does Donald Trump on Saturday Night Live, no one thinks it's really Trump. If someone tried to impersonate Trump, they would be trying to get people to believe they really were him.

Interesting words: Derisory

Derisory is an adjective meaning either "expressing derision" or "worthy of derision, especially 'particularly small'" (per Merriam Webster). Derision, in turn, means "the use of ridicule or scorn to show contempt".

The first known use of "derisory" is from 1618.  Derisory is a pretty rare word, per Google Ngram, it's 1 in every 8.3 million words, where derision is used about 10 times more often.  Interestingly, though, derision is getting rarer over time while derisory is getting more common. In 1900, the ratio was about 100 to 1.

The origin of both words is linked to deride, which comes from Middle French derider and earlier from Latin deridere "to ridicule, laugh, or scorn".

Interesting words: Punctate

According to Merriam-Webster, punctate (rhymes with drunk state) is an adjective and means "marked with minute spots or depressions" or "characterized by dots or points". That's a useful word!  It saves a bunch of words and makes a clear description of a situation easier. You could use it to describe a skin condition or a leaf or findings from an MRI or things like that.

There is a noun form "punctation".

Don't get this mixed up with punctuation! But, if a piece of writing uses ellipsis extensively, you could call it "punctate punctuation"!

The etymology is from Latin punctatus, then Latin punctum (point).  It's rarely used (about 1 in 5,000,000 words, per Google Ngram) and is in decline, for some reason, having peaked in about 1910.

Interesting words: Reliquary

A reliquary is a container for relics. Usually, these are holy relics associated with a religion, but the word reliquary can also be used more loosely - e.g. for a container for the bones of  deceased royalty.  One purpose of a reliquary is to be able to move the relics if the church or temple had to evacuate, as in times of war.

Etymologically, reliquary comes from French reliquaire which was first used in the 14th century. Not surprisingly, it shares its origin with relic, which originally meant "body parts or other object from a holy person" (see https://www.etymonline.com/word/relic). Relic derives from Latin, reliquiae which meant the remains of a martyr and from proto-IndoEuropean leikw- meaning "to leave".

The meaning of relic has broadened with time; it is now used for any object of historical or sentimental interest.  The less common reliquary is going in the same direction.  For example, in New York City there is a museum called the City Reliquary, which displays artifacts from the history of the city, most of them not religious in any way. Reliquary is also the title of at least two novels.

Interesting words: Redux

Redux is an interesting word.  I read about it in The Word Detective.  It sounds like it means "reduced" or perhaps summarized or something like that.  But it doesn't. Redux means "brought back" or "revived".  According to Wikipedia, it is mostly used in literature, film and video game titles, and was made much more popular when John Updike published Rabbit Redux in 1970.  Google's ngram viewer shows that the use of redux has had a lot of peaks and valleys, peaking in 1806-1808, then again in 1904, then there was a long decline in use and, indeed, a resurgence after 1970 that, so far, shows no sign of slowing down. Indeed, one could say "redux redux". But it's never been really popular - the peaks are at about 0.0000045% of all words, or about 1 in every 22 million words.

One unusual thing about redux is that (unlike nearly all adjectives in English) it is used only after the noun it modifies. Another unusual thing is that it has no comparative or superlative form (the -er and -est of most adjectives). It comes from Latin reducere "to lead back or bring back" - the same root as reduce, which changed its meaning later on.

Intersting words: Acnestis: The parts you can't reach

Does your back ever itch?  Mine does.  And, sometimes, it's in the part I can't scratch!  That's so annoying.  Sometimes I will rub against a chair or something like that.  And they even sell back scratchers to let you reach those parts.

But ... what are those parts?  Not only is it annoying to be unable to scratch where it itches, it's annoying to have to say "where I can't reach".  And now, you don't have to.  Because English has a word for those parts: Acnestis.

Can you scratch my acnestis?

Do cats even have an acnestis? 

Where is your acnestis?

When I was younger, my shoulders were so flexible that I had no acnestis, but now I do.

And do you know of any animal that has an acnestis that is not on its back?

Interesting words: Paskudnyak

The word: Paskudnyak






Pronunciation:  rhymes with pass could we yak

Definition: A paskudnyak is a vile, rotten, nasty person. The adjectival form (rarely heard, in my experience with Yinglish) is "paskudne".







Origin: Paskudnyak is Yiddish, and earlier from Polish and Ukranian (Yiddish started as mostly German but amalgamated words from lots of languages).

Notes: It is difficult to distinguish this word from other terms of contempt such as schmuck or putz. Paskudnyak is, at least, not vulgar. Looking through Rosten's Joys of Yiddish, I think that paskudnyak is more like "sleazy", "mean" and "disgusting"; schmuck is more fully evil, and putz is more idiotic. Both putz and shmuck are obscene. Also, paskudnyak is much less known, which can be good.

Source: The Joys of Yiddish.