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April 13, 2008

Jizz (noun)

Pronunciation: ['jiz]

Definition: The immediate, characteristic impression given by an animal or plant.

Usage: This word is commonly used among birdwatchers to denote the quick, transient but unmistakable "look" of a bird, which is assimilated by the experienced birder during the merest glimpse of the creature as it flits past. It is an informal English-language equivalent of the German loan-word "gestalt," which means "shape" or "form" in German, but which in English has taken on the complex sense of "an object of perception that forms a whole or unity, and is inexpressible simply as a sum of its parts."

Suggested Usage: The experience of recognizing something in an instant without understanding how you do it is a common enough experience, so this word deserves wider usage. "I tell you, she was walking a fox on a leash—it was like seeing a dog with the jizz of a cat." When you recognize an old friend who is walking away from you on the far side of the street, you are responding to his jizz - why not tell him so? "Leo, since you had that bad haircut and the surgery on your knee, you have developed a unique jizz."

Etymology: The story goes that this word originated in a form of aircraft-recognition practice, common among fighter-pilots during World War II. The pilots were given brief glimpses of silhouetted models of enemy and friendly aircraft, and gradually developed the ability to tell friend from foe quickly and reliably. The gestalt impression thus formed was called "General Impression of Shape and Size"—abbreviated to GISS and pronounced "jizz." Unfortunately for the story, the pronunciation seems implausible (why not "giss" or "jiss"?), and English-speaking fighter pilots of the appropriate era deny knowledge of the acronym. Indeed, the Oxford English Dictionary finds "jizz" in bird-watching use well before the war, but sheds no light on its true origins.

April 14, 2008

Acerbic (adjective)

Pronunciation: [ê-'sêr-bik]

Definition: Sour, bitter, or acidic to the taste; harsh or cutting, as a remark or tone.

Usage: The adverb is "acerbically" and the noun is "acerbity" (plural "acerbities"). The verb is acerbate ['æ-sêr-beyt] "irritate, exasperate" the mother of ex-acerbate "to make worse," originally "to make very harsh, bitter."

Suggested Usage: Acerbic comments and wit are derisive and tainted with contumely: "Joyce made an acerbic remark about the contents of Mark's head and left without further comment." (Actually, Joyce said that if brains were dynamite, Mark couldn't blow the wax out of his ears.) Gordon is just as bad: "Gordon's acerbic wit only acerbates his humorless wife."

Etymology: From Latin acerbus "harsh, bitter, briny" from PIE *ak- "sharp, hard" + *r, a common PIE suffix. Akin to acer "sharp, bitter" underlying English "acrid." Suffixed as *ak-ya-, this root devolved into Old Norse eggya "incite, goad" borrowed as "to egg (on)" in English. It evolved into "edge" in English itself. With the suffixes –men and -mer, the root *ak- underwent metathesis (place switching) to *ka-, so that *ak-men- became Russian kamen' "stone" and "hammer" in English and the Germanic languages. In Greek, with the suffix –m, the same root turns up in acme "point, pinnacle" and with –r, as acros "high, top" found in acrobat, from acro + bainen, bat- "walk."

April 15, 2008

Bootleg (verb)

Pronunciation: ['but-leg]

Definition: To produce and/or distribute legally prohibited products.

Usage: Today's word is used mostly as an adjective (bootleg DVDs) and a verb (to bootleg DVDs). It has settled into the US vernacular as a regular verb referring to the action of bootlegging, which is carried out by a bootlegger, who bootlegs.

Suggested Usage: Remember that the original meaning of today's word began in the days of rum-runners: "Izzy Russianoff got the capital to start his charity hospital bootlegging moonshine in the 30s." However, don't let that restrain you from applying it to any product illegally distributed, "Curt's avocation was bootlegging illegal fireworks up and down the east coast until a bolt of lightning caught up with his truck on a run through the Poconos."

Etymology: Today's word originated from the habit of men, when they wore high boots in centuries past, of smuggling objects across borders by hiding them in the legs of their boots. In the late 19th century, however, its meaning shrunk to the smuggling of whisky into counties and states that were 'dry.' During Prohibition, the word became even more popular as the vocation of smuggling alcoholic beverages into the United States from Canada or from, well, bootleg distilleries. However, the word did not go the way of Prohibition. Rather, its meaning has broadened again recently to refer to the distribution of any illegal product, such as copyrighted tapes, CDs, and DVDs that are widely produced and distributed illegally today.

April 16, 2008

Bromide (noun)

Pronunciation: ['bro-mId]

Definition: (1) A compound with bromine plus another element; (2) a commonplace remark or notion, a platitude, cliché; (3) a tiresome person, a bore.

Usage: Bromides were such common sedatives in the 19th and early 20th centuries that a syndrome, bromism, was introduced to describe the effects of overdosing on them. Bromism resulted in depression, loss of memory, and slow mental processing. The adjective is "bromidic," as a bromidic phrase (= a cliché).

Suggested Usage: Although we no long resort to bromides (1), bromides (3) still have the same dulling, sleep-inducing effect, "Farnsworth is such an old bromide, I fall asleep just looking at him." The most common use of today's word, however, is in the second sense: "If Kratzer uses that bromide, 'no pain, no gain,' one more time, I'm going to give him a significant gain on the nose."

Etymology: The etymology is very simple though its semantic improbability leaves many etymologists, well, nonplussed. It is from Latin non "not" + plus "more" via the 17th century French phrase mettre a nonplus "to put at nonplus." "Plus" comes from the same root (*pel-/*pol-) as plenus "full" from which we borrowed "plenty." This root came to English as "full" and German as "voll." In Russian the same root emerges as polny "full."

April 17, 2008

Manumit (verb)

Pronunciation: ['mæn-yu-mit]

Definition: To release from slavery or other unpleasant situation.

Usage: This term has been heard referring to the implementation of a theory or concept. Not good. The sense of "manumit" is to release from an unpleasant state or circumstance. It does not mean "convert," "transmit," or even "transmit by hand," as its etymology suggests. "Manumission" is the noun, "manumissive," the adjective and the agent is a "manumitter." A manumisable slave is one that may be manumitted.

Suggested Usage: Household applications abound: "You are grounded for a week! Only if you apologize to—no, grovel before Mrs. McGillicutty will I manumit you from week-long house arrest." Here is another, "I would do anything to be manumitted from dining with your boss and his frumpy wife tonight." Let's hope the situation a manumisable one.

Etymology: Latin manumittere from manu- "hand" + mittere "to let go, send off", literally to send forth from one's hand or possession. "Manus" also underlies "manacle," "maneuver," manuscript (hand-written), "manage" (to handle), "manual" (handbook), "manufacture" (make by hand in Latin"), "manure" (Middle English manuren "cultivate land" from Anglo-Norman main-ouverer "work by hand"—yuck!), and many others.

April 18, 2008

Fugacious (adjective)

Pronunciation: [fyu-'gey-shês]

Definition: Fleeting, fleeing, running away, passing quickly; (botany) withering and falling off early or very soon.

Usage: The adverb of today's word is "fugaciously" and the noun, "fugacity." English has a handful of absolutely lovely adjectives with meanings almost synonymous with today's. "Fugacious" implies passage, movement past the viewer. "Ephemeral" has a similar meaning but implies only briefness of existence. "Evanescent" suggests vapor, a vague existence that is short-lived.

Suggested Usage: Our lives are aswim with things that come and go, so this word comes in quite handy, "If paychecks were less fugacious, we could go out more often." Sightings are often fugacious: "He lived on fugacious glimpses of her face until he roused enough pluck to ask her out."

Etymology: "Fugacious" comes from Latin fugax (fugac-s) from fugere "to flee," the verb in the phrase tempus fugit "time flies." It is akin to Greek pheugein "to run away." The original Proto-Indo-European root (see the new section of the Library) was *bheug- with that funny [bh] sound with the puff of air that became [f] at the beginning of Latin words (remember fornix "oven" vs. English burn?) So we find Lithuanian baugus "fearful, frightful." The same root probably lies behind Sanskrit bhuj "bend" and German beugen "to bend."

April 19, 2008

Accrue (verb)

Pronunciation: [ê-'kru]

Definition: To gain or accumulate as an increment, as interest accrues to a savings account or unused sick days might accrue to vacation time.

Usage: This verb has two nouns, "accruement" and "accrual." In the accrual method of accounting (as opposed to the cash method), expenses and income are charged to periods to which they are applicable, regardless of when the income arrives or the payments, made. The [e], of course, is dropped before -ing: "accruing."

Suggested Usage: Things accrue when they grow or attach themselves to something else, "In the long run, far more pain than joy accrues (to the human spirit) from bearing grudges." Do you think this word too esoteric for the home? Not in the slightest: "We simply must find a way to slow the accrual of junk in the garage." Finally, do not overlook applications around the office, "Little benefit accrued to Perkins or his business from the financing arranged by his friend Boesky."

Etymology: Old French acreu, past participle of acroistre "to increase, add" from Latin accrescere "to grow" comprising ad- "(up)to" + crescere "to arise." The Latin root cres- is a metathesized form of the PIE root *ker- "to grow," found also in creare "to create" and "Creole." The same verb, "crescere," underlies "crescent," "increase," and "concrete" (from concrescere "grow together, harden"). Without metathesis, the same PIE root emerges in "Ceres," the name of the Roman goddess of grain and the eponym of "cereal," not to mention Greek koros "boy" and kore "girl."