A.Word.A.Day Archives from https://wordsmith.org/awad -------- Date: Tue Feb 1 00:01:02 EST 2022 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--taw X-Bonus: I tire so of hearing people say, / Let things take their course. / Tomorrow is another day. / I do not need my freedom when I'm dead. / I cannot live on tomorrow's bread. -Langston Hughes, poet and novelist (1 Feb 1902-1967) This week's theme: Homonyms taw (taw) verb intr.: To shoot a marble. noun: 1. A large marble used as a shooter. 2. A game of marbles, also known as ringtaw. 3. A line from which the players shoot marbles. [Origin unknown. Earliest documented use: 1709.] verb tr.: 1. To prepare raw material for use. 2. To tan animal skin with alum and salt. [From Old English tawian (to make or prepare). Earliest documented use: 893.] See usage examples in Vocabulary.com's dictionary: https://www.vocabulary.com/dictionary/taw A taw among regular marbles https://wordsmith.org/words/images/taw_marble_large.jpg Image: wikiHow https://www.wikihow.com/Play-Marbles A book with a tawed skin spine https://wordsmith.org/words/images/taw_skin_large.jpg Image: preservationgal https://www.flickr.com/photos/arfried/309112868/ "And your marbles ain't tawed." Don Pirata; Cark and Moil; iUniverse; 2000. "My grandfather tawed my baseball glove. I was the only kid on the diamond with a white glove, but I didn't mind because it was so darn soft." Lisa Diane Kastner (ed.); Running Wild; Running Wild Press; 2017. -------- Date: Wed Feb 2 00:01:02 EST 2022 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--chum X-Bonus: Jobs are like going to church: it's nice once or twice a year to sing along and eat something and all that, but unless you really believe there's something holy going on, it gets to be a drag going in every single week. -Thomas Michael Disch, science fiction author and poet (2 Feb 1940-2008) This week's theme: Homonyms chum (chuhm) noun: 1. A close friend. 2. A roommate. verb intr.: 1. To be a close friend or to be friendly. 2. To share a room, especially in a dormitory at a school or college. [Originally university slang, probably from chamber fellow or chamber mate. Earliest documented use: 1684.] noun: Matter, especially fish parts, dumped into the water to attract fish. verb intr.: To throw fish parts into the water. [Of uncertain origin, perhaps from chum salmon. Earliest documented use: 1857.] noun: Chum salmon, a fish of the northern Pacific Ocean. [Probably from Chinook Jargon tzum (spotted, striped). Earliest documented use: 1908.] See usage examples in Vocabulary.com's dictionary: https://www.vocabulary.com/dictionary/chum Chumming the water: https://wordsmith.org/words/images/chum_fishing_large.jpg Photo: Brocken Inaglory / Wikimedia https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Chuming_the_water.jpg "To my college chum" (vintage postcard, c. 1910) https://wordsmith.org/words/images/chum_college_large.jpg Image: Toronto Public Library https://digitalarchive.tpl.ca/objects/330015/to-my-college-chum "And once you've chummed up with your God, you'll never be alone again, poor you. For that's the end of you. You and your God chumming it through time and eternity." D.H. Lawrence; Kangaroo; Martin Secker; 1923. "If he could be manipulated into doing something useful, then so be it. With the water sufficiently chummed, she then sat back, kept her mouth shut, and watched to see if he'd bite." Brad Thor; The Athena Project; Atria Books; 2010. -------- Date: Thu Feb 3 00:01:02 EST 2022 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--marl X-Bonus: It takes a lot of time to be a genius, you have to sit around so much doing nothing, really doing nothing. -Gertrude Stein, novelist, poet, and playwright (3 Feb 1874-1946) This week's theme: Homonyms marl (marl) noun: 1. An earthy deposit containing clay and lime. 2. Earth. verb tr.: To fertilize with marl. [From Old French marle, from Latin margila, diminutive of Latin marga (marl). Earliest documented use: 1280.] noun: A yarn made of differently colored threads or a fabric made from such a yarn. [Of uncertain origin. Probably from shortening of marble or marbled, from Latin marmor, from Greek marmaros (shining stone). Earliest documented use: 1892.] See usage examples in Vocabulary.com's dictionary: https://www.vocabulary.com/dictionary/marl A chunk of marl: https://wordsmith.org/words/images/marl_earth_large.jpg Photo: Tashkoskim / Wikimedia https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Piece_of_marl.JPG A spool of marl: https://wordsmith.org/words/images/marl_yarn_large.jpg Photo: Ladymay https://www.flickr.com/photos/22845704@N08/4528853551 "She dug her fingers and toes into the soft marl trying to haul her body out, but her foot slipped, and she slithered further down." Jackie Ladbury; The Potter's Daughter; Ruby Fiction; 2019. "Trixie was dressed in grey marl leggings and a loose pink T-shirt." Celina Grace; Chimera; CreateSpace; 2015. -------- Date: Fri Feb 4 00:01:02 EST 2022 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--grouse X-Bonus: The mark of the educated man is not in his boast that he has built his mountain of facts and stood on the top of it, but in his admission that there may be other peaks in the same range with men on the top of them, and that, though their views of the landscape may be different from his, they are nonetheless legitimate. -E.J. Pratt, poet (4 Feb 1882-1964) This week's theme: Homonyms grouse (grous) verb intr.: To complain or to grumble. noun: A complaint. [Of uncertain origin, perhaps from Old French groucier/grousser (to murmur or grumble). Earliest documented use: 1887.] adjective: Wonderful. [Australian slang, of uncertain origin. Earliest documented use: 1941.] noun: Any of various birds that are typically plump, ground-dwelling, and have feathered legs. [Of uncertain origin, perhaps from northern English dialect crouse (cheerful). Earliest documented use: 1531.] See usage examples in Vocabulary.com's dictionary: https://www.vocabulary.com/dictionary/grouse "From now on, friends, we will be a single clan! Let's all sing the love song of the grouse together... and no grousing!" https://wordsmith.org/words/images/grouse_large.png Image: Asterix Comics https://www.facebook.com/asterixandobelixofficial/photos/a.206365722839843/2104931196316610/ Make Straya Grouse Again https://wordsmith.org/words/images/grouse_australia_large.jpg Image: Peter / eBay https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/273292620470 "'Woman up,' Sebille groused. 'It's just a little scuff.'" Sam Cheever; Turtle Croakies; Electric Prose; 2020. "All in all the show ['Books That Made Us'] can be summed up as, 'Books are grouse'." Your Week on Free TV; Sydney Morning Herald (Australia); Nov 22, 2021. -------- Date: Mon Feb 7 00:01:02 EST 2022 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--cacoethes X-Bonus: No one is useless in this world who lightens the burden of it for anyone else. -Charles Dickens, novelist (7 Feb 1812-1870) I'm a minimalist, but I do make certain exceptions. One can never have too much chocolate in their pantry, too big a battery in their cellphone, or too many words on their wordshelves. Words don't take much room. They don't need feeding, vacuuming, washing, or tuning. No need to buy insurance or locks. How many words does one really need in life? The more the merrier. You don't have to use them all at the same time, but you never know which word might come handy when. Here are five I have picked this week. Dusted them off (metaphorically speaking), as they have been unused for a while. Take a look. Do with them what you will. And add them to your own wordshelves. These are words that might make you say: I didn't know there was a word for it! cacoethes (kak-oh/uh-WEE-theez) noun An irresistible urge to do something, especially something inadvisable. [From Greek kakoethes (ill-disposed), from kakos (bad) + ethe (disposition). Kakos is ultimately from the Indo-European root kakka-/kaka- (to defecate), which also gave us poppycock, cucking stool https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cucking_stool, cacology https://wordsmith.org/words/cacology.html , and cacography https://wordsmith.org/words/cacography.html . Earliest documented use: 1603.] See usage examples in Vocabulary.com's dictionary: https://www.vocabulary.com/dictionary/cacoethes NOTES: The Roman satirist Juvenal once wrote about insanabile scribendi cacoethes (incurable passion for writing), which inspired the sense of the word today. https://wordsmith.org/words/images/cacoethes_large.jpg Photo: Komkrit Preechachanwate / 123rf "[Evan Knapp] evokes the youthful state of being 'teenager know-it-all strong', driven by cacoethes." Evan Knapp; Where There Is Movement; Kirkus Reviews (Austin, Texas); Feb 1, 2020. "He had a cacoethes for coining neologisms." Anand Bose; Ghazals Of A Pen; BookRix; 2020. -------- Date: Tue Feb 8 00:01:02 EST 2022 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--refoulement X-Bonus: Every increased possession loads us with new weariness. -John Ruskin, author, art critic, and social reformer (8 Feb 1819-1900) This week's theme: There's a word for it refoulement (ruh-FUL-man) noun [the last syllable is nasal] The forcing of refugees or asylum seekers to return to a place where they are likely to face persecution. [From French refoulement (turning back), from refouler (to push back), from re- (again) fouler (to trample). Earliest documented use: 1780.] NOTES: Originally the term refoulement referred to the overflowing of a river or of the water being dammed back due to the accumulation of ice. Today, non-refoulement is a principle of international law prohibiting turning away refugees and asylum seekers to a place they are fleeing from. https://wordsmith.org/words/images/refoulement_large.jpg Photo: John Englart https://www.flickr.com/photos/takver/9374736981/ "[Jennifer] Harbury, who is sixty-six, has made a career of challenging alleged abuses of immigrants, including refoulements. She grew up in Connecticut and California, in a family that had fled Nazi persecution in Holland during the Second World War." Sarah Stillman; No Refuge; The New Yorker; Jan 15, 2018. -------- Date: Wed Feb 9 00:01:03 EST 2022 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--memetic X-Bonus: The animals of the world exist for their own reasons. They were not made for humans any more than black people were made for whites or women for men. -Alice Walker, poet and novelist (b. 9 Feb 1944) This week's theme: There's a word for it memetic (muh/mee/mi-MET-ik) adjective Relating to memes. https://wordsmith.org/words/meme.html [From meme, from Greek mimeisthai (to imitate, copy). Earliest documented use: 1977.] https://wordsmith.org/words/images/memetic_large.jpg Image: Know Your Meme https://knowyourmeme.com/photos/1555430-distracted-boyfriend "In Nov 2016, members of the 4chan community announced: 'We actually elected a meme as president.' ... [They] had channelled their combined memetic attacks to help elect a reality TV star to the highest office in the land. The nihilistic memes of Clown World had manifested in reality." Brian McGleenon; It's a Doge-Eat-Doge World; The Independent (London, UK); Jan 13, 2022. -------- Date: Thu Feb 10 00:01:02 EST 2022 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--bimarian X-Bonus: What is laid down, ordered, factual is never enough to embrace the whole truth: life always spills over the rim of every cup. -Boris Pasternak, poet, novelist, Nobel laureate (10 Feb 1890-1960) This week's theme: There's a word for it bimarian (by-MAY-ree-uhn) adjective Relating to two seas. [From Latin bimaris, from bi- (two) + mare (sea). Earliest documented use: 1731.] https://wordsmith.org/words/images/bimarian_large.jpg Photo: Amanda Slater https://www.flickr.com/photos/pikerslanefarm/3406966577/ "The morning after the bimarian flight home ..." Morgan Benson; The Mating Rituals of the Burning Giraffe; Xlibris; 2010. -------- Date: Fri Feb 11 00:01:02 EST 2022 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--graphomania X-Bonus: We are like tenant farmers chopping down the fence around our house for fuel when we should be using Nature's inexhaustible sources of energy -- sun, wind, and tide. ... I'd put my money on the sun and solar energy. What a source of power! I hope we don't have to wait until oil and coal run out before we tackle that. -Thomas Edison, inventor (11 Feb 1847-1931) [See this discussion https://quoteinvestigator.com/2019/10/02/sun-energy/] This week's theme: There's a word for it graphomania (graf-oh-MAY-nee-uh) noun An obsessive inclination to write. [From Greek grapho- (writing) + -mania (obsession). Earliest documented use: 1827.] NOTES: Are you afflicted with graphomania? You are in good company. Leonardo da Vinci filled thousands of pages of his notebooks. Just 72 of those pages were bought by Bill Gates in 1994 for what would be 58 million in today's dollars. Do you carry a notebook and pen with you at all times? Do you wake up in the middle of the night to write? How bad is it? Is your graphomania limited to being unable to resist from writing on a bathroom wall? No matter what kind, tell us about it at words@wordsmith.org or share on our website https://wordsmith.org/words/graphomania.html . Meanwhile, check out this poem by Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr.: Cacoethes Scribendi https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/44378/cacoethes-scribendi A page from the notebook of Leonardo da Vinci, a polymath and graphomaniac https://wordsmith.org/words/images/graphomania_large.jpg Image: Wikimedia Commons https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Codex_Leicester#/media/File:Vinci_-_Hammer_2A.jpg "He was one of the least prolific painters of his era. In 40 years, he completed, at most, 15 paintings and left much work -- including the 'Mona Lisa' -- deliberately unfinished. In contrast, a kind of graphomania seemed to seize him. By some counts, the notebooks run to 16,000 pages -- only a fraction of which have been viewed." Parul Sehgal; What Made Leonardo Such a Great Artist? Science, Says A New Book; The New York Times; Dec 14, 2020. -------- Date: Mon Feb 14 00:01:02 EST 2022 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--aphrodite X-Bonus: For one human being to love another: that is perhaps the most difficult of all our tasks, the ultimate, the last test and proof, the work for which all other work is but preparation. -Rainer Maria Rilke, poet and novelist (4 Dec 1875-1926) A word coined after a person is known as an eponym, from Greek epi- (upon) + -onym (name). It's extremely rare to have a word coined after a person to take root in the language -- one has to have done something extraordinary, either good or bad. For example, Socrates has given us the terms Socratic method https://wordsmith.org/words/socratic_method.html and Socratic irony https://wordsmith.org/words/socratic_irony.html . Fictional characters are not behind. Multiple eponyms happen with them too. This week we'll meet five mythological characters and see an eponym coined after each. Next month, we'll revisit each of the five and see another eponym coined after them. aphrodite (af-ruh-DY-tee) noun A beautiful woman. [After Aphrodite, the Greek goddess of love and beauty. Her Roman equivalent is Venus. Earliest documented use: 1658.] See usage examples in Vocabulary.com's dictionary: https://www.vocabulary.com/dictionary/Aphrodite https://wordsmith.org/words/images/aphrodite_large.jpg Sculpture: Antonio Canova, c. 1822-23 Photo: Ed Uthman https://www.flickr.com/photos/euthman/256556730/ "An aphrodite doesn't use her skill for unfair gain. It has therapeutic applications." Poul Anderson; The Rebel Worlds; New American Library; 1969. -------- Date: Tue Feb 15 00:01:02 EST 2022 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--titanism X-Bonus: Hofstadter's Law: It always takes longer than you expect, even when you take into account Hofstadter's Law. -Douglas Hofstadter, professor of cognitive science (b. 15 Feb 1945) This week's theme: Mythological characters who have resulted in multiple eponyms titanism (TY-tuh-niz-uhm) noun A spirit of nonconformity, rebelliousness, or revolt, against authority, convention, etc. [After Titan https://wordsmith.org/words/titan.html , any of a family of giant gods in Greek mythology. Titans, under the leadership of Cronus, one of the Titans, overthrew their father Uranus and ruled themselves. Eventually, Cronus's son, Zeus, rebelled against his father and defeated the Titans. Earliest documented use: 1628.] "Fall of the Giants", 1636-1638 https://wordsmith.org/words/images/titanism_large.jpg Art: Jacob Jordaens Image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Jacob_Jordaens_-_La_ca%C3%ADda_de_los_Gigantes,_1636-1638.jpg "But this means that man's work must be purified of titanism, of self-will, of aspirations to self-assertion and power." Thomas Merton; Seasons of Celebration; Farrar, Straus, and Giroux; 1965. -------- Date: Wed Feb 16 00:01:04 EST 2022 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--boreal X-Bonus: They know enough who know how to learn. -Henry Adams, historian and teacher (16 Feb 1838-1918) This week's theme: Mythological characters who have resulted in multiple eponyms boreal (BOH-ree-uhl) adjective Northern; relating to the north, north wind, northern regions, etc. [From Boreas, the god of the north wind in Greek mythology. Earliest documented use: 1470. The opposite is austral https://wordsmith.org/words/austral.html .] See usage examples in Vocabulary.com's dictionary: https://www.vocabulary.com/dictionary/boreal "Boreas Abducting Oreithyia", c. 1615 https://wordsmith.org/words/images/boreal_large.jpg Art: Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640) Photo: Frans Vandewalle https://www.flickr.com/photos/snarfel/6601694923 "'Bruised Lands' https://gignouxphotos.com/news/bruised-lands-in-glasgow-for-cop-26/ is a compendium of human violence against the natural landscape. From the boreal forests in Northern Alberta -- destroyed by the oil sands industry -- to lignite surface mining in Westphalia, Alan Gignoux photographs the raised welts and deep, enduring scars we've left on the Earth." Snapshot; Financial Times (London, UK); Oct 30, 2021. https://gignouxphotos.com/projects/oil-sands/ -------- Date: Thu Feb 17 00:01:03 EST 2022 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--vulcanize X-Bonus: If we would only give, just once, the same amount of reflection to what we want to get out of life that we give to the question of what to do with a two weeks' vacation, we would be startled at our false standards and the aimless procession of our busy days. -Dorothy Canfield Fisher, author, reformer, and activist (17 Feb 1879-1958) This week's theme: Mythological characters who have resulted in multiple eponyms vulcanize (VUHL-kuh-nyz) verb tr.: To harden or improve, for example, rubber by application of sulfur and heat. verb intr.: To become hardened. [After Vulcan, the Roman god of fire, metalworking, etc. Earliest documented use: 1846.] See usage examples in Vocabulary.com's dictionary: https://www.vocabulary.com/dictionary/vulcanize NOTES: Charles Goodyear (1800-1860) ran a hardware store where he sold farm implements, but at heart he was a tinkerer. He experimented with ways to make natural rubber (also known as Indian rubber) less sticky. He tried many substances, but nothing worked. He didn't give up. He borrowed money from friends and kept experimenting. Ultimately, what worked was serendipity. He once accidentally dropped a piece of sulfur-coated rubber on a hot stove and discovered that it did the trick. Goodyear called the process vulcanization in honor of the Roman god of fire. Goodyear died penniless, and nearly four decades after his death when some people in Akron, Ohio, founded a company to manufacture bicycle tires and horseshoe pads, they named it in Goodyear's honor. https://corporate.goodyear.com/us/en/about/history/beginnings.html There was a dispute about who invented it first, Goodyear or a British fellow, but ultimately vulcanization has been around for thousands of years, as practiced by Mesoamericans https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mesoamerican_rubber_balls . After a setback in a patent dispute, Goodyear wrote, "In reflecting upon the past, as relates to these branches of industry, the writer is not disposed to repine, and say that he has planted, and others have gathered the fruits. The advantages of a career in life should not be estimated exclusively by the standard of dollars and cents, as is too often done. Man has just cause for regret when he sows and no one reaps." A vintage Goodyear ad for horseshoes https://wordsmith.org/words/images/vulcanize_goodyear_rubbershoe_ad_large.jpg Image: Attic Paper https://www.atticpaper.com/proddetail.php?prod=1901-goodyear-tire-ad-horse-shoes Vulcanization in the Amazon https://wordsmith.org/words/images/vulcanize_large.jpg Photo: Christoph2007 / Wikimedia https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Vulcanization#/media/File:Vulcanization_in_Amazonas.jpg "These vulcanized hearts, they only become more resistant when you ask for mercy." Saul Bellow; Humboldt's Gift; Viking; 1975. -------- Date: Fri Feb 18 00:01:02 EST 2022 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--gorgonize X-Bonus: It seems that for success, in science or art, a dash of autism is essential. For success the necessary ingredients may be an ability to turn away from the everyday world, from the simple practical, an ability to rethink a subject with originality so as to create in new untrodden ways. -Hans Asperger, physician (18 Feb 1906-1980) This week's theme: Mythological characters who have resulted in multiple eponyms gorgonize (GOR-guh-nyz) verb tr. To paralyze, petrify, or hypnotize. [After Gorgon, any of the three monstrous sisters in Greek mythology: Stheno, Euryale, and Medusa. They had snakes for hair and turned anyone who looked into their eyes into stone (apparently it was OK to objectify people in those days). Earliest documented use: 1609.] http://wordsmith.org/words/images/gorgonize_large.jpg Photo: Melanie E. Rijkers https://www.flickr.com/photos/melaniephotoart/14847887318/ "She'd nearly gorgonized him. He shuddered and drained his glass." James P. Blaylock; The Last Coin; Ace; 1988. -------- Date: Mon Feb 21 00:01:02 EST 2022 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--Sehnsucht X-Bonus: The secret of joy is the mastery of pain. -Anais Nin, writer (21 Feb 1903-1977) The musician Leo Kottke once said, "The Germans have done for the consonants what the Hawaiians have done for the vowels." What does that mean? You may have seen German words such as krummholz https://wordsmith.org/words/krummholz.html or kitsch https://wordsmith.org/words/kitsch.html . Then there's Hawaiian with words such aa https://wordsmith.org/words/aa.html and, well, just look at the spelling of the word Hawaii. The Hawaiian language has five vowels in an alphabet of 13 letters. German? The same as English (more or less). We could feature a whole week of words borrowed from German, we could feature a week of words borrowed from Hawaiian, but we don't want to do anything imprudent. Better to keep the world's consonant/vowel store in balance, so instead this week we'll alternate German words with Hawaiian. Sehnsucht (ZEN-zookht) noun Yearning or longing. [From German Sehnsucht (longing or yearning), from sehnen (to long or yearn) + Sucht (craving or addiction). Earliest documented use: 1847.] Mir Fehlt Das Meer (I miss the sea) https://wordsmith.org/words/images/sehnsucht_large.jpg More here https://www.treffpunkt-bibliothek.at/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/MIR-FEHLT-PRESENTATION.pdf Photo: Herbert Graffius https://www.flickr.com/photos/hergra/51740755169/ "On Christmas morning 1868, it came to me, my new Sehnsucht. I suspect it was the aroma of baked bread." Jane Kirkpatrick; A Mending at the Edge; WaterBrook; 2008. -------- Date: Tue Feb 22 00:01:02 EST 2022 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--lei X-Bonus: The first forty years of life give us the text; the next thirty supply the commentary on it. -Arthur Schopenhauer, philosopher (22 Feb 1788-1860) This week's theme: Words borrowed from German & Hawaiian lei (lay, LAY-ee) noun A garland, typically made of flowers, or leaves, shells, nuts, feathers, etc. [From Hawaiian lei. Earliest documented use: 1843.] See usage examples in Vocabulary.com's dictionary: https://www.vocabulary.com/dictionary/lei Getting lei'd https://wordsmith.org/words/images/lei_large.jpg Photo: Amy Jutras https://www.flickr.com/photos/amyjutras/22789445889/ "Jade put a lei around Jett's neck." Lynne Westwood; The Fabulous Snobby Cats of Heavenly Hills; Tate; 2007. -------- Date: Wed Feb 23 00:01:02 EST 2022 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--verstehen X-Bonus: Leaving home in a sense involves a kind of second birth in which we give birth to ourselves. -Robert Neelly Bellah, sociologist and author (23 Feb 1927-2013) This week's theme: Words borrowed from German & Hawaiian verstehen (fuhr-SHTAY-uhn) noun The use of empathy in understanding human actions and behavior, especially in interpreting sociological or historical events. [From German verstehen (to understand). Earliest documented use: 1934.] "As a statistician, she had no background or interest in verstehen, and Waldemar had little interest in her." Werner Cohn; Early Companions; iUniverse; 2005. -------- Date: Thu Feb 24 00:01:03 EST 2022 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--kapu X-Bonus: We're here to put a dent in the universe. -Steve Jobs, entrepreneur and inventor (24 Feb 1955-2011) This week's theme: Words borrowed from German & Hawaiian kapu (KAH-poo) noun Taboo. [From Hawaiian kapu, from the Proto-Polynesian root tapu which also gave us taboo https://wordsmith.org/words/taboo.html . Earliest documented use: 1933.] https://wordsmith.org/words/images/kapu_large.jpg Image: Igor Motov https://www.flickr.com/photos/71411059@N00/3186824268/ "I haven't explored deeply into the caverns as they are considered kapu." Kristie Clark; Dragon Clan; Delphi; 2021. -------- Date: Fri Feb 25 00:01:02 EST 2022 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--wissenschaft X-Bonus: I look at the world and I notice it's turning / While my guitar gently weeps / With every mistake we must surely be learning / Still my guitar gently weeps. -George Harrison, singer-songwriter (25 Feb 1943-2001) This week's theme: Words borrowed from German & Hawaiian Wissenschaft (VI-suhn-shaft) noun Knowledge, learning, and science or their systematic pursuit. [From German Wissenschaft (science), from Wissen (knowledge) + -schaft (-ship, making). Earliest documented use: 1934.] NOTES: If the word Wissenschaft doesn't have enough consonants or isn't long enough for you, we'd like to present to you Wissenschaftsgläubigkeit (belief or faith in science). If that doesn't work for you either we encourage you to add on prefixes and suffixes, but please show some sprachgefuhl https://wordsmith.org/words/sprachgefuhl.html . "Philosophy and literature are well and good, but perhaps a little Wissenschaft along the way would not be amiss." Ellen Vanstone; Mom's the Word; National Post (Don Mills, Canada); Aug 6, 2016. -------- Date: Mon Feb 28 00:01:02 EST 2022 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--palmate X-Bonus: Not being able to govern events, I govern myself. -Michel de Montaigne, essayist (28 Feb 1533-1592) The management commended the handsome, well-mannered surgeon on completing the manuscript of the manual. Notice anything unusual about the above sentence? Yes, it has an artificial feel to it and for a good reason. The sentence includes only one person, but it has a whole bunch of hands. How many? Raise your hands if you caught all seven. The management (from Italian mano) commended (from Latin manus) the handsome (literally, easy to handle), well-mannered (Latin manus) surgeon (Greek kheir) on completing the manuscript (literally, handwritten) of the manual (literally, a compact hand-held book). This week we'll see some not-so-common words that also have their origins in hands. Call it an all-hands meeting of words. palmate (PAL/PAHL/PA/PAH-mayt) adjective Shaped like a hand with the fingers spread. [From Latin palma (palm, palm tree), which also gave us palmer https://wordsmith.org/words/palmer.html , palmary https://wordsmith.org/words/palmary.html , and palmy https://wordsmith.org/words/palmy.html . Earliest documented use: 1738.] See usage examples in Vocabulary.com's dictionary: https://www.vocabulary.com/dictionary/palmate NOTES: The word is often used to describe objects in the vegetable and animal kingdom. There are palmate leaves, feet, antlers, and more. Palmate newt https://wordsmith.org/words/images/palmate_newt_large.jpg Photo: Andy & Helen Holt https://www.flickr.com/photos/wildlifelens/18614176313/ Male deer with palmate antlers https://wordsmith.org/words/images/palmate_antlers_large.jpg Photo: Bryant Olsen https://www.flickr.com/photos/bryanto/38667593291/ "And over the slabs lay a mantle Of fallen palmate leaves -- The bodiless hands of autumn With nothing up their sleeves." Geoffrey Brock; Forever Street; Poetry (Chicago, Illinois); Aug 2004.