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April 20, 2008

Cacoepy (noun)

Pronunciation: [kæk-'o-ê-pee or 'kæk-o-e-pee]

Definition: Incorrect pronunciation.

Usage: Occasionally, we need words we have long since abandoned or that have abandoned us. We may be facing a period in our history now when we need to retrieve "cacoepy" from our lexical attic. "Cacoepy" is not to be confused with cacology "bad choice of words." The antonym of "cacoepy" is orthoepy "the correct pronunciation of words." "Cacoepistic" is the adjective form of today's word and a person who often mispronounces words is a "cacoepist."

Suggested Usage: We think that such a ten-dollar word (the legendary "fifty-cent word" adjusted for inflation) as today's ought to be reserved for those who consistently get it wrong. "The Cacoepist-In-Chief mispronounced word after word, even making up a few, leading one newspaper to ask 'Hain't English his Native Lingo?'"

Etymology: The first part of today's word comes from the Greek kakos "bad." The PIE root is kakka- "to defecate." Words like "poppycock" and "cacophony" have their origins in the same root. The second half, -epy, is from Greek: epos "song, word." Its PIE root is wekw-, which also turns up in "vocal," "voice," "invoke" and "vote."

April 21, 2008

Wafture (noun)

Pronunciation: ['wahf-tyUr or 'wahf-chUr]

Definition: 1) A wave, a waving motion, as of the hand or of an object in the hand; (2) the act of being carried gently and bobbingly on the air or water.

Usage: Today's is the absolutely lovely noun based on the verb, waft "to move with an undulating (waving) motion by air or water." It is already being dropped from some dictionaries (ours, for example), so we need to rescue it with usage before it wafts out of the English language altogether. Fragrances may be wafted by a friendly breeze or flowers, by a desultory stream.

Suggested Usage: In 'Julius Caesar' (II, 1) Shakespeare writes, "yet you answer'd not, but, with an angry wafture of your hand, gave sign for me to leave." We can speak of the wafture of robin wings settling lazily on our lawn or the gentle wafture of a flag rendering an all but silent requiem for a lazy afternoon. But let's keep this word alive—poets will need it 100 years from now.

Etymology: The general wisdom is that today's word is a back-formation from wafter "convoy ship" from Middle Dutch or Middle Low German wachter "a guard" from wachten "to guard." This would make it a relative of Old English wæccan "to watch," progenitor of current "watch." We find it more likely a noun from the ancestor of "wave," Old English "wafian," with the suffix –ter, also found in "laughter" (also after an [f] sound). We do know that the word was originally "wafter" which meant "to wave" in some dialects. "Wave," now, is a cousin of "weave," "wafer," and "waffle," semantically much closer to the meaning of today's word.

April 22, 2008

Watershed (noun)

Pronunciation: ['wa-dêr-shed]

Definition: (1) A ridge dividing the water which drains into one river system from that draining into another; (2) a critical turning point.

Usage: Today's word is as comfortable in the narrow terminology of geology as it is as a metaphor in the broader world of English. Although it is historically unrelated to "shed," it is currently treated just as that word would be.

Suggested Usage: We like today's word for its figurative uses: "Driving into the canal was a watershed in Hubert's life that had a sobering effect on the rest of his days." Any event that causes a dramatic change in development is a watershed, "The anvil's falling on Ridgeway's head was a watershed in his intellectual growth that turned him from rocket propulsion design to politics."

Etymology: Today's word emerged in the scientific terminology of the 14th century as an attempted imitation of German "Wassersheide," based on Wasser "water" + Scheide "divide, parting." The German word "Wasser" comes from the same source as English "water," Proto-Indo-European *wod-/*wed- plus the common suffix –er. Without that initial [w], the same root gave us "otter," while the e-variant became "wet." The o-variant turns up in Russian voda "water" without any suffix and in "vodka" with a Russian diminutive suffix. This root picked up an [n] in Latin to become unda "wave," found in English "undulate" and "inundate." In Greek the initial [w] became [h], leading to "hydor" which underlies "hydra," the many-headed sea monster slain by Hercules and many other words referring to water, e.g. "hydrant," "hydroponic," and "dehydrate."

April 23, 2008

Dapper (adjective)

Pronunciation: ['dæ-pê(r)]

Definition: (1) Neat, trim, jaunty, spiffy, snazzy, spruce in appearance, i.e. smartly groomed and dressed; (2) lively, sharp, quick. Applied to males only.

Usage: The comparative of today's adjective is "more dapper" and the superlative is "most dapper." This word is used most often in the phrase "Dapper Dan," referring to any dapper man. Dapper men generally have closely cut hair and often use a bit of oily hair tonic to hold it in place. This is why Ulysses Everett McGill (played by George Clooney) in the Coen Brothers' film, 'O Brother, Where Art Thou?' exclaims, "Well I don't want Fop, dammit! I'm a Dapper Dan man!" when he finds a store that carried 'Fop' pomade but not his favorite brand, 'Dapper Dan.'

Suggested Usage: The meaning of today's adjective is very narrowly focused on a very neatly dressed man with an air of self-confidence that shows in his posture and walk, "Quentin looked quite dapper in his sharply creased pants, spit-polished shoes, and sprightly gait." The word does carry humorous connotations, though, making it easy to play with: "Lloyd dresses so badly he makes Rodney Dangerfield look dapper!"

Etymology: Today's word comes to us from Middle Dutch dapper "quick, strong." It is related to Russian debelyi "fat, thick," German tapfer "brave," Tocharian tsopats "big" and tappo "courage." The phrase "Dapper Dan" comes from a 1921 song of that name written by Lew Brown and Albert Von Tilzer, who also wrote 'The Girl in the Gilded Cage' and 'I Want a Girl Just Like the Girl that Married Dear Old Dad.' He must have been a mama's boy.

April 24, 2008

Diffuse (adjective)

Pronunciation: [di-'fyus]

Definition: (1) Spread out, not localized in one place, widely distributed. (2) (Style) Wordy, unfocused, verbose

Usage: There is also a verb "diffuse" [di-'fyuz] (not to be confused with "defuse") meaning "to spread in all directions" or "to dim, soften." The adverb for today's adjective is "diffusely" and the noun is "diffuseness" though "diffusion" is sometimes used.

Suggested Usage: The first sense of today's word refers to the vaguely defined, unlocalized, "The pain in my leg is rather diffuse; it's hard to say exactly where it originates." The sense of vagueness, however, has migrated to the description of an unfocused writing or speech style, "Delores's explanations of our projects were so diffuse, I signed her up for yourDictionary's Word of the Day." Now, there's a sure solution for the problem.

Etymology: "Diffuse" comes to us from Old French "diffus," which drifted down from Latin "diffusus," the past participle of diffundere "to spread out pouring," composed of dis- "apart" + fundere "to pour, melt." Both roots of this verb appear in other English words, such as "foundry" where metal is melted and poured, "fondue," melted cheese, and "fonts," which once were poured from melted lead. Of course, "refuse," "infuse," "profuse" all come from the participle stem. The original root was *gheu- "to melt, to pour," so in Germanic languages words of this origin begin with [g]: "gust" from Old Norse gustr "a wind blast," "gush," akin to Icelandic gusa "to gush" and "geyser" from Old Norse geysa "to gush."

April 25, 2008

Boor (noun)

Pronunciation: ['bur or 'bu-wêr]

Definition: (A lout, a grossly rude and tactless person.

Usage: Do not confuse today's word with "bore" [bor] (one of the few deverbal person nouns without the suffix –er: a writ-er writes and a read-er reads, but cooks, guides, and bores cook, write and bore). Boors are boorish and behave boorishly because of their boorishness. Most boors now live far from South Africa, where the boers are now gentleman farmers all, producing excellent wines, among other produce.

Suggested Usage: Remember, boors are seldom bores, "How that boor got his FOOT in the punch bowl I'll never know; he usually keeps it tucked safely in his mouth." Rather, boors tend to behave rather vulgarly: "The giggling boys watched Gordon boorishly pick his nose and made bets on how he would dispose of the by-product."

Etymology: From Afrikaans boer "farmer" related to Dutch boer and German Bauer "peasant farmer" and to Old English buan "dwell, live" from which contemporary "bower" is derived. To English colonialists in South Africa, the boers were rude and uncivilized, so they adopted the word in that sense, but misspelling in their own "civilized" way. The original root of today's word underlies the word for "be" in all Indo-European languages, and hence has too enormous a lexical progeny to be covered here. We do thank Christo Lombaard, himself of South Africa, for pointing out most unboorishly how English speakers shot themselves in the foot misborrowing today's word.

April 26, 2008

Fushionless (adjective)

Pronunciation: ['fu-zhên-lis]

Definition: Lacking in strength, energy or character.

Usage: Like many Scots words, the spelling of this one can vary from the antique "foisonless" (reflecting an original pronunciation ['fahy-zhên-lis]), to the more currently phonetic "fooshionless." It is an orphan negative across most of Scotland, but around Aberdeen they may still describe a particularly energetic and forceful person as being "full of fushion."

Suggested Usage: It's a fine dismissive word. When you find the wine to be flat and insipid, simply arch an eyebrow and declare: "It's okay, I guess—though a bit fushionless." When asked how you got along with that crashing party bore, just remark: "He's a rather fushionless conversationalist."

Etymology: Like many Scots words, "fushion" is a borrowing from the French. In this case foison, "an abundance," is from the Latin fusionem "a pouring," the action noun from fundere "to pour." The English word "fusion" comes from the same source and originally meant "the process of melting." That meaning is still in use when physicists talk about the "latent heat of fusion" of a substance: the heat required to melt it. But otherwise fusion has come to mean "complete mixing or combining," as if melted and poured together. "Fundere" has given us "foundry," "funnel" and "font," the last because type-fonts were originally poured from molten metal.