Just Words – Words

Words I’ve encountered that I’d like to use, or words that interest me from Word-A-Day.

Involucre

in•vo•lu.cre |’inva,looker| (also involucrum)

a whorl or rosette of bracts surrounding an inflorescence (especially a capitulum) or at the base an umbral.

ORIGIN: late 16th century: from French, or from Latin involucrum, from involvere ‘roll in, envelop’ (see involve).

Imbricate

imbricate /ĭm′brĭ-kāt″/

Having regularly arranged, overlapping edges, as roof tiles or fish scales.
Bent and hollowed like a roof or gutter tile.
Lying over each other in regular order, so as to “break joints,” like tiles or shingles on a roof, the scales on the leaf buds of plants and the cups of some acorns, or the scales of fishes; overlapping each other at the margins, as leaves in æstivation.

Grisalle

Decorated or depicted in shades of gray.

noun

gri·saille gri-ˈzī -ˈzāl

: decoration in tones of a single color and especially gray designed to produce a three-dimensional effect

Allembic

PRONUNCIATIO: uh-LEM-bik
MEANING: 1. An apparatus formerly used in distilling substances. 2. Something that refines, purifies, or transforms.
ETYMOLOGY: [From Middle English alambic, from Old French, from Medieval Latin alembicus, from Arabic al-anbiq, from al (the) + anbiq (still), from Greek ambix (cup).]
USAGE: “Melville transforms the shaggy minutiae of life and its myriad characters (whether Hawthorne, Malcolm, a besieged wife or a shipmate) into an alembic of wishes, conflicts and disappointments that, taken together, reflect him, a mysterious, roiling, poignant writer alive, painfully alive, in every phrase he wrote.” Brenda Wineapple; Melville at Sea; The Nation (New York); May 20, 2002.

cacoethes

PRONUNCIATION: kak-oh/uh-WEE-theez
MEANING: An irresistible urge to do something, especially something inadvisable.
ETYMOLOGY: 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, cacology, and cacography. Earliest documented use: 1603.
NOTES: The Roman satirist Juvenal once wrote about insanabile scribendi cacoethes (incurable passion for writing), which inspired the sense of the word today.
USAGE:
- “He evokes the youthful state of being ‘teenager know-it-all strong’, driven by cacoethes.”
- “He had a cacoethes for coining neologisms.”

velleity

PRONUNCIATION: vĕ-lē′ĭ-tē
MEANING:Volition in the weakest form; an indolent or inactive wish or inclination toward a thing, which leads to no energetic effort to obtain it: chiefly a scholastic term. Contrast with conation,
USAGE: The ease of her words, the control of them, was meant to convey to Compton that her wish to know of her real parents was hardly more than a velleity, a thought that would come to one while watering a plant or peeling an orange.

conation

PRONUNCIATION: kō-nā′shən
MEANING: The aspect of mental processes or behavior directed toward action or change and including impulse, desire, volition, and striving. In psychology, voluntary agency, embracing desire and volition.

Hypostasize. hypostasize

MEANING: To make into a distinct substance; to conceive or treat as an existing being; to hypostatize.

daedal

PRONUNCIATION: DEE-duhl
MEANING: Ingenious; skillful; intricate; artistic.
ETYMOLOGY: From Latin daedalus (skillful), from Greek daidalos. Earliest documented use: 1590. A related word is logodaedaly.
NOTES: In Greek mythology, Daedalus was an architect and craftsman who built the labyrinth for King Minos of Crete. When the king imprisoned him so the knowledge of the labyrinth wouldn’t spread, Daedalus made wings for himself and his son Icarus.
USAGE: “The best of the projects in the magazine were truly daedal: ingenious, cleverly intricate, and diversified.”

lentic

PRONUNCIATION: LEN-tik
MEANING: Relating to or living in still water.
ETYMOLOGY: From Latin lentus (slow, calm), which also gave us relent, lentamente (slowly, used in music direction), and lentitude (slowness). Earliest documented use: 1935. The form lenitic is also used. The word for “relating to or living in moving water” is lotic.
USAGE: “At her side, Clo snarled, ‘That lentic spawn of a caiman’s balls.’”

seraphic

PRONUNCIATION: suh-RAF-ik
MEANING: Like an angel: serene, beautiful, pure, blissful, etc.
ETYMOLOGY: From Latin seraphim, from Greek seraphim, from Hebrew seraphim, from saraph (to burn). Earliest documented use: 1632.
USAGE: “When the spell of immobility resumes, seraphic harmonies give way to a colossal, demonic setting.”

involute

PRONUNCIATION: IN-vuh-loot; verb: in-vuh-LOOT
- MEANING:
- adjective: Intricate; complex. or Curled inward.
- noun: A curve traced by a point on a string while winding or unwinding it around another curve.
- verb intr.: To curl up.
ETYMOLOGY: From Latin involutus, past participle of involvere (to roll up), from in- (into) + volvere (to roll). Ultimately from the Indo-European root wel- (to turn or roll), which also gave us waltz, revolve, valley, walk, vault, volume, wallet, helix, devolve, voluble, welter, and willowy. Earliest documented use: 1661.
USAGE: “A shoddy piece of research obfuscated by crepuscular logic and involute style.”

bombinate

PRONUNCIATION: (BOM-buh-nayt)
MEANING: verb intr.: To buzz or hum.
ETYMOLOGY: From Latin bombinare, from bombilare (to hum, buzz), from Latin bombus (humming), from Greek bombos (booming, humming). Earliest documented use: 1880. A perfect synonym is bombilate.
USAGE: “He hummed a ditty to himself and realized he could bombinate twice as loud in a void thrice as great as his head.”Nidhi Singh; In Perpetual Dread of Happiness; Bards and Sages Quarterly (Bellmawr, New Jersey); Apr 2017.

balter

PRONUNCIATION: (BAHL-tuhr)
MEANING: verb intr.: To dance clumsily or walk unsteadily.verb tr., intr.: To clot, clog, or tangle.
ETYMOLOGY: For 1. Probably from Old Norse. Earliest documented use: 1400.For 2: Probably a frequentative of the verb ball. Earliest documented use: 1601.
USAGE: “Knock back a few and you’ll be baltering all around the lounge room.”Rory Gibson; How to Live on a Beer Budget; Herald Sun (Melbourne, Australia); Apr 6, 2020.
“Think of journaling as baltering with a pen in hand. Free to doodle or draw or paint.

caducous

PRONUNCIATION: (kuh-DOO/DYOO-kuhs)
MEANING: adjective: Tending to fall easily or before the usual time.
ETYMOLOGY: From Latin caducus (falling), from cadere (to fall). Ultimately from the Indo-European root kad- (to fall), which is also the source of cadence, cascade, casualty, cadaver, chance, chute, accident, occident, decay, deciduous, recidivism, perchance, escheat, and casuistry. Earliest documented use: 1684.
USAGE: “It was a morning after storm … the dishevelled lawn littered with a caducous fall of leaves.”John Banville; The Sea; Knopf; 2007.
“Caducous ideas could set back any efforts to achieve unity.”Carmen Madera; Enkindled: The Wild Scent of Desire; Xlibris; 2014.

sympatric

PRONUNCIATION: (sim-PAT-rik)
MEANING: adjective: Occurring in the same geographical area.
ETYMOLOGY: From sym-, a form of syn- (together) + patra (homeland), from pater (father). Earliest documented use: 1904. The opposite is allopatric.
USAGE: “The Mojave yucca is often sympatric with the Joshua tree but has fibrous leaf edges.”James Cornett; Desert Scape: Joshua Tree Not World’s Largest Yucca; The Desert Sun (Palm Springs, California); Sep 30, 2012.

cwm

PRONUNCIATION: (koom)
MEANING: noun: A steep bowl-shaped mountain basin, carved by glaciers. Also known as a cirque.
ETYMOLOGY: From Welsh cwm (valley). Earliest documented use: 1853
USAGE: “Often, the water gathered in the cwms before overflowing to the valley below.”Peter Bond; Exodus: Earth Fights Back; Eloquent Books; 2010.

clamant

PRONUNCIATION: (KLAY-mant, KLAM-uhnt)
MEANING: adjective: 1. Loud.2. Demanding attention; urgent.
ETYMOLOGY: From Latin clamare (to cry out). Earliest documented use: 1639.
USAGE: “Hanging out of the other window, he beheld the clamant Baron urging the guard with frenzied entreaty.”J. Storer Clouston; Count Bunker; Blackwood; 1906.

eidolon

PRONUNCIATION: (eye-DOH-luhn)
MEANING: noun: 1. An idealized form.2. A phantom.
ETYMOLOGY: From Greek eidos (form, idea), ultimately from the Indo-European root weid- (to see), which also gave us wise, view, supervise, wit,eidos, and eidetic. Earliest recorded use: 1828.
USAGE:
- “She is an eidolon, an archetype for the evolution of humankind, from the waters to the sky.”Dana Redfield; Jonah: A Novel; Hampton Roads Publishing; 2000.
- “You are magical. An eidolon. I sometimes doubt that you exist.”Bert O. States; Girl of My Dreams; The Hudson Review (New York); Autumn 1998.

didymous

(DID-uh-muhs) adjective Occurring in pairs; twin.

From Greek didymos (twin). Ultimately from the Indo-European root dwo- (two) that also gave us dual, double, dubious, doubt, diploma, twin, and between.

“Shakespeare portrays the didymous functionaries as if they were a unit comprised of two parts.”

mackle

(MAK-uhl) noun: A blur, as from a double impression in printing.
verb tr., intr.: To blur.
[From Latin macula (spot or stain).]
“For some twenty days all recollections vanished from my mind. That period forms but a mackled page in my existence.”Peter Browning; <=”” i=””>; Great West Books; 1995.

ullage

PRONUNCIATION: (UL-ij)
MEANING: noun: The amount of liquid by which a container falls short of being full.
ETYMOLOGY: From Old French ouillage/eullage, from ouiller/eullier (to fill a cask), from ouil (eye, hole), from Latin oculus (eye). Earliest documented use: 1444.
USAGE: “Too much ullage can be a sign of evaporation, and that’s not good.”Mark Shanahan; A Finely Honed Palate; Boston Globe; Oct 17, 2015.

tittup

PRONUNCIATION: (TIT-uhp)
MEANING: noun: A lively movement; caper.verb intr.: To move in an exaggerated prancing manner.
ETYMOLOGY: Apparently imitative of the sound of a horse’s hooves. Earliest documented use: 1691.
USAGE: “[Josh Homme’s] wiggling movements while playing guitar and singing were just a small prance away from the full tittup.”Ludovic Hunter-Tilney; Queens of the Stone Age; Financial Times (London, UK); Nov 21, 2017.

skail

PRONUNCIATION: (skayl)
MEANING: verb intr.: To scatter out, spill, or disperse.verb tr.: To dismiss or to disband an assembly, group, etc.noun: A scattering or dispersal.
ETYMOLOGY: Of Scottish or Scandinavian origin. Earliest documented use: 1300.
USAGE: “Everybody stood up. The whole congregation rose upon the seats, and in every face was pale consternation. At last the minister said, … the congregation should skail: whereupon skail they did.”

wale

PRONUNCIATION: (wayl)
MEANING: noun: 1. A streak mark raised on the skin, as by a whip. 2. One of the series of ribs in a fabric such as corduroy. 3. A plank along the side of a wooden ship. 4. A horizontal band or strip, for example, around a woven basket.verb tr.: 1. To mark with wales. 2. To fasten or secure.
ETYMOLOGY: From Old English walu (mark of a lash). Earliest documented use: 1024.
USAGE: “The mere friction of the wales of my corduroy-covered chair were the only things holding me.”Robert Olen Butler; The Hot Country; The Mysterious Press; 2012.

obverse

PRONUNCIATION: (noun: OB-vuhrs, adjective: ob-VUHRS)
MEANING: noun: 1. The side of a coin, medal, etc. that has the main design.
2. The front or the principal side of anything.
3. A counterpart to something.
adjective: 1. Facing the observer. 2. Serving as a counterpart to something.
ETYMOLOGY: From Latin obvertere (to turn toward), from ob- (toward) + vertere (to turn). Ultimately from the Indo-European root wer- (to turn or bend), which is also the source of words such as wring, weird, writhe, worth, revert, and universe. Earliest documented use: 1656.
NOTES: The front of a coin is called obverse, the other side is reverse.
USAGE: “But the conviction that the truth must be mathematically elegant can easily lead to a false obverse: that what is mathematically elegant must be true.– ”No GUTs, No Glory; The Economist (London, UK); Jan 13, 2018.

ekistics

ekisticsPRONUNCIATION: (i-KIS-tiks)
MEANING: noun: The study of human settlements, drawing on such disciplines as city planning, architecture, sociology, etc.
ETYMOLOGY: Coined by Constantinos A. Doxiadis (1913-1975), Greek architect and urban planner, from Greek oikistikos (of settlement), from oikizein (to settle), from oikos (house). Earliest documented use: 1968.
USAGE: “Yet as any student of ekistics could have predicted, it was Jupiter which remained the economic heart of Edenism. For it was Jupiter which supplied the single largest consumer of He3: Earth and its O’Neill Halo.”Peter F. Hamilton; The Neutronium Alchemist; Macmillan; 1997

sillage

PRONUNCIATION: (see-AHZH) MEANING: noun: The trail of scent that lingers behind from a perfume; also, the degree to which it lingers.
ETYMOLOGY: From French sillage (wake, trail). Earliest documented use: early 1800s.
USAGE: “Phlur’s Siano fragrance intends to be a celebration of nightlife and ‘for those who want to own the room,’ … Its sillage is ‘far’.”Ellen Byron; When Words and Pictures Sell a Fragrance; The Wall Street Journal (New York); Jun 22, 2016

metathesis

PRONUNCIATION: (muh-TATH-uh-sis)
MEANING: noun: 1. The transposition of letters, sounds, or syllables in a word. Example: aks for ask.2. In chemistry, double decomposition.
ANAGRAM: metathesis = It’s the same.
ETYMOLOGY: Via Latin from Greek metatithenai (to transpose), from meta- (among, after) + tithenai (to place). Earliest documented use: 1538.
USAGE: “As Caractacus, Cedric was the heroic British chieftain who rebelled against Roman rule. As Cerdic son of Cymbeline, Cedric by metathesis was the founder of the kingdom of Wessex.”

mondain

PRONUNCIATION: (mon-DAYN)
MEANING: noun: A sophisticated man; a man belonging to fashionable society.adjective: Worldly; fashionable.
ETYMOLOGY: From French mondain (socialite), from Latin mundus (world). Earliest documented use: 1833.
USAGE: “It’s reassuring, however, to see even this seasoned mondain go weak at the knees when he meets Catherine Deneuve, while being arm in arm with Julia Roberts almost causes him a nosebleed.”

tantivy

PRONUNCIATION: (tan-TIV-ee)
MEANING: adverb: At full gallop; at full speed.noun: A fast gallop; rush.adjective: Swift.interjection: A hunting cry by a hunter riding a horse at full speed.
ETYMOLOGY: Of obscure origin, perhaps from the sound of a galloping horse’s hooves. Earliest documented use: 1648.
USAGE: “He supposes himself as a wolf actually to have been galloping tantivy over hill and dale.”Montague Summers; The Werewolf in Lore and Legend; Dover; 1933.

olid

PRONUNCIATION: (O-lid)
MEANING: adjective: Foul-smelling.
ETYMOLOGY: From Latin olere (to smell), which also gave us the opposite of today’s word: redolent. Earliest documented use: 1680.
USAGE: “It was dark and musty, the carpet giving off an olid smell of mildew.”Chris R. Jamison; The Chesler Legacy; Writer’s Showcase; 2000

defeasible

PRONUNCIATION: (di-FEE-zuh-buhl)
MEANING: adjective: Capable of being revised, defeated, or annulled.
ETYMOLOGY: From Old French desfaire (to undo or destroy), from Latin dis- (apart, away) + facere (to do). Ultimately from the Indo-European root dhe- (to set or put), which is also the source of do, deed, factory, fashion, face, rectify, defeat, sacrifice, satisfy, Sanskrit sandhi (joining), Urdu purdah (veil or curtain), and Russian duma (council). Earliest documented use: 1586.
USAGE: “Surely many moral duties are defeasible, and in that sense relative. We all recognize that although lying is typically wrong, under certain circumstances — to protect someone’s life, for example — it is justifiable.”Austin Dacey; Believing in Doubt; The New York Times; Feb 3, 2006.

fuliginous

PRONUNCIATION: (fyoo-LIZ-uh-nuhs)
MEANING: adjective: Sooty; dusky; obscure.
ETYMOLOGY: From Latin fuligo (soot). Earliest documented use: 1574.
USAGE: “Each morning of her life, the City had been filmed in this airborne soot, a fuliginous mist.”Mary Novik; Conceit; Doubleday; 2007.

fabian

PRONUNCIATION: (FAY-bee-uhn)
MEANING: adjective: Avoiding direct confrontation; cautious; delaying.
ETYMOLOGY: After the Roman general Quintus Fabius Maximus Verrucosus (c. 280-203 BCE), from his guerrilla tactics in not engaging the enemy directly. Instead, he chose the war of attrition, avoiding direct confrontation, disrupting the enemy’s supply lines, etc. For this, he also earned the nickname Cunctator Earliest documented use: 1598.
USAGE: “But how could I confront Charlie with a letter which I had ferreted out from among his not-too-clean underwear? So instead I adopted a Fabian policy of watchful waiting.”Erica Jong; Fear of Flying; Holt, Rinehart, and Winston; 1973.
“David Hicks has yet to face prosecution largely because of the fabian strategy of delay adopted by his own legal team. The numerous requests for a postponement of proceedings filed by his lawyers make complaints about their client’s detention without trial ring rather hollow.”Brett Mason; Critics of the US tribunals turn a blind eye to the UN; The Age (Melbourne, Australia); Dec 8, 2006.

cunctator

PRONUNCIATION: (kungk-TAY-tuhr)
MEANING: noun: One who hesitates; a procrastinator or delayer.
ETYMOLOGY: From Latin cunctari (to hesitate, delay). Earliest documented use: 1654.
USAGE: “No cunctator, James quickly provided his wife with the surefire ammunition to divorce him — adultery.”Richard Kepler Brunner; With Marriage Penalty, It Can Pay to Get Divorced; The Morning Call (Allentown, Pennsylvania); Oct 3, 1999.

bavardage

PRONUNCIATION: (bah-vuhr-DAHZ)
MEANING: noun: Chattering; gossip.
ETYMOLOGY: From French bavarder (to chatter), from bavard (talkative), from bave (saliva, drivel). Earliest documented use: 1835.
USAGE: “A long time ago, I joined a former friend from high school and her husband for dinner at a restaurant. Though the three of us shared a table, the couple engaged in side conversations in French, which they spoke fluently knowing that my French was barely conversational. As their bavardage grew more frequent and lengthy, I dined alone in their company.”Algernon D’Ammassa; As Time, Money Pass, to Whom Is CAP Entity Accountable?; Las Cruces Sun-News (New Mexico); Oct 13, 2017.

hypercathexis

PRONUNCIATION: (hy-puhr-kuh-THEK-sis)
MEANING: noun: Excessive concentration of mental energy on something.
ETYMOLOGY: From Greek hyper- (over, above) + cathexis, from Greek kathexis (holding), from katekhein (to hold fast), from kata- (intensive prefix) + ekhein (to hold). Ultimately from the Indo-European root segh- (to hold), which is also the source of words such as hectic, scheme, scholar, cathect, and asseverate. Earliest documented use: 1923.
USAGE: “She is especially drawn to a passage on the hypercathexis of lost objects.”Marta Bladek; “A Place None of Us Know until We Reach It”: Mapping Grief and Memory in Joan Didion’s The Year of Magical Thinking; Biography (Honolulu, Hawaii); Fall 2014.

contretemps

PRONUNCIATION: (KON-truh-tan, kawn-truh-TAN), plural contretemps (-tanz)
the last syllable is nasal
MEANING: noun: 1. An unforeseen and unfortunate occurrence.2. A disagreement or dispute.
ETYMOLOGY: Originally contretemps was a fencing term meaning a pass or thrust made at a wrong moment. From French contre- (against) + (time). Earliest documented use: 1684.

chatoyant

PRONUNCIATION: (shuh-TOI-uhnt)
MEANING: adjective: Having a changeable luster like that of a cat’s eye at night.noun: A chatoyant gemstone, such as a cat’s eye.
ETYMOLOGY: From French, present participle of chatoyer (to shine like a cat’s eye), from chat (cat). Earliest documented use: 1816.
USAGE: “A chatoyant gleam twinkled from his steel blue eyes.”Al Patterson; Fire in the Bosom; Page Publishing; 2014.

acerate

PRONUNCIATION: (AS-uh-rayt)

MEANING: adjective: Needlelike.

ETYMOLOGY: From Latin acerosus (full of chaff), erroneously interpreted as derived from acus (needle) or acer (sharp), ultimately from the Indo-European root ak- (sharp), which is also the source of acrid, vinegar, acid, acute, edge, hammer, heaven, eager, oxygen, mediocre, acerbate, acidic, acidulous, acuity, and paragon. Earliest documented use: 1833.

USAGE: “At once the air was hideous with the acerate harmony of a singing commercial.”Sam Merwin Jr.; Judas Ram; Galaxy Science Fiction; Dec 1950.

vedette or vidette

PRONUNCIATION: (vuh-DET, vi-)
MEANING: noun: 1. A leading stage or film star.2. A mounted sentry or a scouting boat posted in an advanced position to observe the movements of an enemy.
ETYMOLOGY: From French vedette (star, as in a film star; speedboat), from Italian vedetta (influenced by vedere: to see), from veletta. Ultimately from the Indo-European root weg- (to be strong or lively), which also gave us vigor, velocity, vegetable, vegete, and velitation. Earliest documented use: sense 1: 1963, sense 2: 1690.
USAGE: “Hazel finally got us headed out toward Beverly Hills, while I talked to her ‘in depth’ a lot about her career. From what I gathered: not so grande a vedette. She’d been in so many movies, too many, from such an early age on, bit parts, nothing roles, couldn’t remember them all.”Brock Brower; The Late Great Creature; Popular Library; 1971.

velitation

PRONUNCIATION: (vel-i-TAY-shuhn) noun
MEANING: A minor dispute or skirmish.
ETYMOLOGY: [From Latin velitation-, from velitatus, past participle of velitari (to skirmish), from veles (light-armed foot soldier). Ultimately from Indo-European root weg- (to be strong or lively), that’s the source for vegetable (Kids, etymology gives you another reason to eat your veggies!), vigor, velocity, watch, vigilante, and vigil.]
USAGE “And in a tense atmosphere of mistrust, with normal diplomatic channels severed, any small clash or velitation can spur escalation back to full-scale war.” Virginia Page Fortna; Peace Time; Princeton University Press; 2004.

mise en abyme

PRONUNCIATION: (mee-zan-nah-BEEM)
MEANING: noun: Self-reflection in a literary work, a work of art, etc.
ETYMOLOGY: From French mise en abyme/abîme (placed into abyss). Originally, the term applied to heraldic shields in which a smaller shield was put into the center of the shield. Earliest documented use: 1968.
NOTES: Some examples are play within a play (Hamlet), story within a story, film within a film, dream within a dream, the placement of a small copy of a work within itself, infinite reflection between two facing mirrors, etc.
USAGE: “The critics haven’t paid attention enough to its self-conscious narrator. It takes you from mise en abyme to mise en abyme.”Arturo Fontaine Talavera (translator Megan McDowell); La Vida Doble; Yale University Press; 2013.
“There’s a shot that pops up again and again in attempts to document the Church of Scientology: two people holding cameras, filming each other, caught in a reconnaissance stalemate. It’s a cinematographic mise en abyme. The surveillance and counter-surveillance recurs in an infinite loop, feeding a sinister sense of paranoia.”John Semley; In L. Ron We Trust; Maclean’s (Toronto, Canada); May 2, 2016.

parergon

PRONUNCIATION: (pa-RUHR-gahn)
MEANING: noun: 1. An accessory, embellishment, or byproduct of a main work.2. Subsidiary work undertaken in addition to one’s main employment.
ETYMOLOGY: From Greek parergon, from para- (beside) + ergon (work). Ultimately from the Indo-European root werg- (to do), which also gave us ergonomic, work, energy, metallurgy, surgery, wright, erg, georgic, andhypergolic. Earliest documented use: 1601.
USAGE: “‘My Century’ is something of a parergon, casually tossed off by this larger-than-life imagination.”James Gardner; History Bites; National Review (New York); Dec 6, 1999.

suberous

PRONUNCIATION: (SOO-buhr-uhs)
MEANING: adjective: Like cork in appearance or texture.
ETYMOLOGY: From Latin suber (cork oak). Earliest documented use: 1670.Remove the initial letter and you get uberous.
USAGE: “Most of the year [floss silk trees] are noticed primarily for their unique trunks that are covered with suberous, pea green bark and large, squat, keep-your-distance thorns.”Joshua Siskin; Learning About Spectacular-Looking Floss Silk Trees; Daily News (Los Angeles, California); Sep 11, 2014.

orotund

PRONUNCIATION: (OR-uh-tund)

MEANING: adjective: 1. Strong, clear, rich (as in voice or speech). 2. Pompous, bombastic.

ETYMOLOGY: Contraction of Latin ore rotundo (with a round mouth), from ore, from os (mouth) + rotundo, from rotundus (round), from the Indo-European root ret- (to run or roll). Other words derived from the same root are rodeo, roll, rotary, rotate, rotund, roulette, and round. Earliest documented use: 1799.Remove the initial letter and you get rotund.

USAGE: “Christopher Lee plants himself centre-stage and unfurls a rich and orotund thespian’s voice.”Ludovic Hunter-Tilney; Singles and Albums for Christmas; Financial Times (London, UK); Dec 22, 2014.

“The first pages listed fifteen high government officials with orotund titles.”Herman Wouk; War and Remembrance; Little Brown & Co; 1978.

susurrate

PRONUNCIATION: (SOO-suh-rayt)
MEANING: verb intr.: To make a whispering or rustling sound.
ETYMOLOGY: From Latin susurrare (to whisper or hum), of imitative origin. Earliest documented use: 1623.
USAGE: “If it’s possible to susurrate visually then that’s what ‘Summer Nights at the Dollar Tree’ does. Lazy and slow and gentle, it feels just right.”Mark Feeney; Robert Adams’s Striking Photos; Boston Globe (Massachusetts); Mar 2, 2016.

farraginous

PRONUNCIATION: (fun-RAJ-uh-nuhs)
MEANING: adjective: Heterogeneous; having a mix of random things.
ETYMOLOGY: From Latin farrago (mixed fodder), from far/farr (corn or spelt). Ultimately from the Indo-European root bhares- (barley), which also gave us barn, barley, farina, and farrago. Earliest documented use: 1616.
USAGE: “If at first glance the visitor mistakes this farraginous exhibition for a Royal Antiques Roadshow, he is not far from the truth.”Brian Sewell; All the Charm of an Antiques Roadshow; Evening Standard (London, UK); Mar 14, 2013.

tachyphylaxis

PRONUNCIATION: (tak-uh-fi-LAK-sis)
MEANING: noun: Mithridatism: Successively decreased response to a drug or a toxin over time.
ETYMOLOGY: From Greek tachy- (swift) + phylaxis (protection). Earliest documented use: 1911.
USAGE: “However, tachyphylaxis and skin atrophy associated with long-term use make steroids unsuitable for lengthy treatment.”The Psoriasis Curse; New Straits Times (Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia); Mar 2, 1999.

condign

PRONUNCIATION: (kuhn-DYN)
MEANING: adjective: Well-deserved, appropriate.
ETYMOLOGY: From Middle English condigne, from Anglo French, from Latin condignus, from com- (completely) + dignus (worthy). Ultimately from Indo-European root dek- (to take, accept), which is the ancestor of other words such as dignity, discipline, doctor, decorate, docile, and deign. Earliest documented use: 1413.
USAGE: “Were [Trump] to be nominated, conservatives would have two tasks. One would be to help him lose 50 states — condign punishment for his comprehensive disdain for conservative essentials, including the manners and grace that should lubricate the nation’s civic life.”George F. Will; If Trump is Nominated, the GOP Must Keep Him Out of the White House; The Washington Post; Apr 29, 2016. (WebCite)

exaptation

PRONUNCIATION: (ek-sap-TAY-shuhn)
MEANING: noun: The adaptation of a trait for a purpose other than for which it was evolved.For example, feathers were evolved for warmth and later co-opted for display and/or flight.
ETYMOLOGY: Coined by Stephen Jay Gould in 1981. A blend of ex- (out) + adaptation, from ad- (towards) + aptare (to fit), from aptus (apt).
USAGE: “The gradual development of propulsion devices like wings and flagella, by contrast, can be explained by exaptation, the process by which ‘a feature that originally evolved for one purpose is co-opted for a different purpose’. Both feathers and flightless wings might have developed originally for the purpose of thermoregulation rather than flight.”

krummholz

PRONUNCIATION: (KROOM-holts)
MEANING: noun: Stunted trees near the timber line on a mountain.
ETYMOLOGY: From German, from krumm (crooked) + Holz (wood). Earliest documented use: 1908.
USAGE: “Contorted spiky krummholz and tangled alder grew close to the water’s edge.”

allision

PRONUNCIATION: (uh-LIZH-uhn)
MEANING: noun: A moving object striking against a stationary object.
ETYMOLOGY: From Latin allidere (to strike against), from ad- (toward) + laedere (to harm). Earliest documented use: 1615 (collision is also from 1615).
NOTES: In maritime usage, the term allision is used for a vessel striking a fixed object, while collision is between two moving ships. Frequently, the word collision is used in both cases.
USAGE: “She watched the beam of the flashlight play dully over the surface, and then she heard something, a faint splash, the sweet allision of breaking water.”T.C. Boyle; East Is East; Penguin; 1991.

solecize

PRONUNCIATION: (SOL-uh-syz)
MEANING: verb intr.: To make an error in language, etiquette, etc.
ETYMOLOGY: After Soloi, an ancient Athenian colony in Cilicia, whose dialect the Athenians considered as substandard. Earliest documented use: 1627. The noun form is solecism
USAGE: “His prose stops clunking only in order to solecise.”Christopher Bray; Jack Nicholson Deserves a Better Biography Than This; The Daily Beast (New York); Oct 31, 2013.

estival or aestival

PRONUNCIATION: (ES-ti-vuhl)
MEANING: adjective: Relating to or occurring in summer.
ETYMOLOGY: Via French from Latin aestivus (of or relating to summer).
USAGE: “Ms. Croghan confides that she is sometimes known as a battle ax, both to locals and estival visitors.” –Joanne Kaufman; Prep Work; The New York Times; Apr 25, 2008.

arcadian

PRONUNCIATION: (ahr-KAY-dee-uhn)
MEANING: adjective: Idyllically pastoral: simple, peaceful.noun: One leading a simple rural life.
ETYMOLOGY: After Arcadia, a region of ancient Greece whose residents were believed to have led quiet, unsophisticated lives of peace and happiness.
USAGE: “Farms, fields, cottages, what [photographer Kevin G. Malella] calls ‘the Arcadian view’, are blended with industrial images — mostly nuclear cooling towers — to create new landscapes that plop the environmentally hazardous engine of contemporary society into our nostalgically folksy lap.”

au fait

PRONUNCIATION: o FAY
MEANING: adjective: Being well-informed or skillful in something.
ETYMOLOGY: From French, literally “to the fact”, from Latin facere (to make or do).
USAGE: “Some technology degree holders took two years in a job before they were au fait with the practical skills.”Caitlin McKay; Award for Dedication; Manawatu Standard (New Zealand); Aug 27, 2007.

bon ton

PRONUNCIATION: bon ton
MEANING: noun: 1. Good form or style.2. Something regarded as fashionably right.3. High society.
ETYMOLOGY: From French, literally, good tone.
USAGE: “It was bon ton to knock Netanyahu and very few top Likudniks resisted the temptation. Netanyahu’s prime-ministerial stint (1996-1999) was doomed.”Sarah Honig; Jabotinsky Who?; The Jerusalem Post (Israel); Jan 16, 2004.
“Evelyn and I were impostors — not members of the bon ton but a visiting, unembarrassed American couple.”Roger Angell; La Vie En Rose; The New Yorker; Feb 16, 2004.

cadastral

PRONUNCIATION: kuh-DAS-truhl
MEANING: adjective: Of or relating to a map or survey showing property lines, boundaries, etc.
ETYMOLOGY: From French cadastre (an official register of the details of real estate in an area, used in determining taxes), from Italian catastro, from Greek katastikhon (list, register), from kata stikhon (line by line).
USAGE: “Pete McDonald was only able to follow some sections of the Long Beach to Heyward Point route by using cadastral printouts and a GPS receiver.”Excellent Guide Improved Upon; Otago Daily Times (Dunedin, New Zealand); Nov 8, 2008.

charivari

PRONUNCIATION: (shiv-uh-REE, SHIV-uh-ree, shuh-riv-uh-REE)
MEANING: noun: 1. A noisy, mock serenade to a newly married couple, involving the banging of kettles, pots, and pans.2. A confused, noisy spectacle.
ETYMOLOGY: From French charivari (hullabaloo), perhaps from Latin caribaria (headache), from Greek karebaria, from kare/kara (head) + barys (heavy). Earliest documented use: 1735.Also spelled as chivaree, chivari, and shivaree.
USAGE: “To the people, the charivari of Westminster politics didn’t much matter.”Polly Toynbee and David Walker; Dear New Leader; The Guardian (London, UK); Sep 27, 2010.

claque

PRONUNCIATION: (klak)
MEANING: noun: A group of people hired to applaud at a performance.
ETYMOLOGY: From French claque, from claquer (to clap), of imitative origin. Earliest documented use: 1864.
NOTES: Although a claque is usually hired to applaud, sometimes it is also used to heckle at a rival’s performance. Then there are moirologists (hired mourners at a funeral).
USAGE: “The publicist even trained both the singer [Frank Sinatra] and his claques in the art of call-and-response.”James Kaplan; Frank; Doubleday; 2010.Read this fascinating extract about claques from the above book.laquea group of people hired to applaud a performer at a show.

clou

PRONUNCIATION: kloo
MEANING: noun: A major point of interest, or a central idea.
ETYMOLOGY: From French clou (nail), from Latin (clavus).
USAGE: “Day four. Open introduction. Read these lines by Joyce describing his novel — ‘Penelope is the clou of the book’.”Kevin Myers; Bluffer’s Guide to Ulysses; Irish Times (Dublin, Ireland); Jun 16, 1997.

mortmain

PRONUNCIATION: (MOHRT-mayn)
MEANING: noun: 1. The perpetual ownership of property by institutions such as churches.2. The often stifling influence of the past on the present and the living.
ETYMOLOGY: From Anglo-Norman mortmayn, feminine of morte (dead) + main (hand), from Latin mortua manus (dead hand). Ultimately from the Indo-European root man- (hand) that’s also the source of manage, maintain, maneuver, manufacture, manuscript, and command.
NOTES: Imagine a B-movie scene of a dead hand stretching out of a grave and you have the picture of the word mortmain. The idea behind mortmain is of a dead hand reaching beyond to hold a property in perpetuity. By extension, the word describes the past dictating the present in an oppressive manner.
USAGE:
- “On what grounds do we allow the dead to bind the living? Courts used to adhere to a ‘rule against perpetuities’ and were suspicious of mortmain, of the ‘dead hand’ of documents drawn up long ago.”Christopher Caldwell; Philanthropy Goes to the Dogs; Financial Times (London, UK); Jul 5, 2008.
- “Martins felt that somehow this knowledge would pay the mortmain that memory levies on human beings.”Graham Greene; The Third Man; 1949.

pas de deux

PRONUNCIATION: (pah duh DU)
MEANING: noun: 1. A dance for two people.2. A close relationship between two people or things involved in an activity.
ETYMOLOGY: From French, literally step of two.
USAGE: “This novel The Song Is You is a pas de deux between a young singer-songwriter and the much older man who actively, obsessively inspires her.”Kate Christensen; Always on My Mind; The New York Times; Apr 10, 2009.

passe-partout

PRONUNCIATION: pas-pahr-TOO
MEANING: noun: 1. Something, for example a master key, that enables unrestricted access.2. An ornamental mat used to frame a picture.3. An adhesive tape used to attach a picture to a mat, glass, backing, etc.
ETYMOLOGY: From French, literally, passes everywhere, from passer (to pass) + partout (everywhere), from par (through) + tout (all).
USAGE: “Francesco Isolabella, one of her lawyers, said, ‘Marion True is being used as an excuse to criminalize all American museums.’ Ms. True should not be used ‘as a passe-partout to get at the Getty.'”

pretermit

PRONUNCIATION: (pree-tuhr-MIT)
MEANING: verb tr.: 1. To let pass without mention.2. To suspend or to leave undone.
ETYMOLOGY: From Latin praetermittere (to let pass), from praeter (beyond, past) + mittere (to let go, send).
USAGE: “In fact, the old lady declined altogether to hear his [Rawdon Crawley’s] hour’s lecture of an evening; and when she came to Queen’s Crawley alone, he was obliged to pretermit his usual devotional exercises.”William Makepeace Thackeray; Vanity Fair; 1847.

schwerpunkt

PRONUNCIATION: SHVEHR-pungkt
MEANING: noun: The point of focus; an area of concentrated effort, especially in a military operation.
ETYMOLOGY: From German Schwerpunkt (center of gravity, focal point), from schwer (weighty) + Punkt (point).
USAGE: “In the only arty shot, the Dalai Lama, seen in silhouette, sits at the schwerpunkt of a Mondrian-like composition.”Meir Ronnen; Happy Families?; The Jerusalem Post (Israel); June 25, 2004.

subserve

PRONUNCIATION: (suhb-SURV)
MEANING: verb tr.: To help to further something.
ETYMOLOGY: From Latin subservire (to serve under), from sub- (under) + servire (to serve), from servus (slave).
USAGE: “The decisions were ad hoc in nature and were taken to subserve political expediency.”

vitiate

PRONUNCIATION: (VISH-ee-ayt)
MEANING: verb tr.: 1. To impair or spoil the effectiveness of.2. To corrupt.
ETYMOLOGY: From Latin vitiare (to spoil, injure), from vitium (blemish). Earliest recorded use: 1534.
USAGE: “The peaceful atmosphere at the school was vitiated as a police constable in an inebriated condition created a scene there.”Alok Mishra; Women, Girls Outnumber Men in Gopalganj, Siwan; The Times of India (New Delhi); Oct 29, 2010.

tranche

PRONUNCIATION: transh
MEANING: noun: A portion, especially of money, investment, etc.
ETYMOLOGY: From French tranche (slice), from trancher (to cut).
USAGE: “Some of the banks, including Central Bank of India and Vijaya Bank, have already received the first tranche of capital.”Mergers of Public Sector Banks Favoured; Business Standard (Mumbai, India); Mar 31, 2009.