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January 13, 2008

Ado (noun)

Pronunciation: [ê-'du]

Definition: Fuss, bother, activity, production.

Usage: This old word has probably remained in English because of Shakespeare's impressive comedy, 'Much Ado About Nothing.' In some British dialects it is a substitute for "to do," as "to have nothing ado with someone." But the infinitive is used more often as a noun today, "without further ado," "why all the ado over such an insignificant matter," and so on. In the US it is often (mis)pronounced "to-do" but why start the process of converting the infinitive phrase into a noun again when we already have today's word?

Suggested Usage: The basic meaning of today's word is "fuss" or "bother" in this sense: "Gosh, mom, I don't see why you are making such a big ado over this tiny little tank top. All the girls are wearing them today." "Ado" means "production" in this sense: "April May's shower was a major ado for a small town like Podunkton." I'm sure you can think of many more like these, so get out there and use them!

Etymology: Middle English, from the phrase at do : at "to" + do "do" from Old Norse, where "at" was the particle signifying the infinitive, as "to" does in English today. English also borrowed "at" from Norse as a preposition during the several Viking invasions of the 9th-11th centuries. In Latin the same root emerged as ad "to(ward)."

January 14, 2008

Firkin (noun)

Pronunciation: ['fêr-kin]

Definition: A small cask for liquids, fish, etc.; a large cask containing half a kilderkin or a quarter barrel; metaphorically, a large amount.

Usage: This lexical orphan has two meanings, a small cask perhaps as small as the brandy cask of a working St. Bernard or a quarter barrel by measure. A larger cask or half barrel is a kilderkin, a word every bit as intriguing as "firkin." As long as we continue to use casks, we should not let these delightful little Germanic words slip from the vernacular.

Suggested Usage: Our recent issue of "hyperbole" brought to Pam Henderson's mind the old Southern hyperbole, "Why, this is so good, I could eat a ferkin of it" (sounds like grits). Is it difficult to attract guests to your parties? Spice up the invitation with today's word, "We're having a small bash at the house this weekend around a firkin of beer." With a kilderkin of beer you will have a firkin of fun.

Etymology: 15th century "ferdekyn" from Middle Dutch "*vierdekijn" based on vierde "fourth" + -kijn, diminutive suffix related to both German –chen (Mädchen "girl") and English –kin, surviving mostly in family names like "Jenkins," "Watkins," "Wilkins" but also found marginally in "napkin" (small tablecloth), "manikin" (little man), "devilkin" (kiddy devil or devilish kid).

January 15, 2008

Goety (noun)

Pronunciation: ['go-ê-ti]

Definition: (Archaic) Black magic; the practice of conjuring the help of evil spirits to carry out evil deeds; necromancy.

Usage: Sometime back we proposed theurgy "beneficial or white magic" as the Word of the Day. Today's word is its antonym: theurgy is the summoning of beneficial spirits and goety, the appeal to evil ones. This word has been misspelled "geotia" under the mistaken impression of a special relation of evil spirits to the earth. Don't fall into that trap! The adjectives are "theurgic(al)" and "goetic(al)", respectively, and the adverbs, "theurgically" and "goetically."

Suggested Usage: When unexpectedly meeting someone you would prefer avoiding, you might try: "What goetic quirk brought you here?" Chances are they will not understand (preserving you from physical harm), unless they are also subscribers to the Word of the Day, in which case you would have been delighted to meet them in the first place. (It all works out.) Here is another: "Don't bother telephoning him. When you need him, you can't contact him by goety."

Etymology: Despite the affinity of witches and warlocks for goats, today's word is unrelated to anything hircine (goatish). Rather, it comes from Greek goeteia "witchcraft, juggling" from goes "sorcerer, juggler" through Latin "goetia" and French "goétie." The original word apparently was related to playing or making sounds. It turns up in Serbian gudeti "to fiddle" and govoriti "to speak" and in Sanskrit as jogU "singing, praising."

January 16, 2008

Lacuna (noun)

Pronunciation: [lê-'ku-nê]

Definition: A cavity or hollow; a hiatus or gap left by a missing part.

Usage: The plural is "lacunae" [lê-'ku-ney] and the adjective is "lacunal." A hiatus is usually a gap in a temporal or spatial continuum, such as the famous 18-minute hiatus in the Nixon tape that caused a large lacuna in the transcript.

Suggested Usage: Do you know an ingrate? You might mention that they exhibit a noticeable emotional lacuna where gratitude might be expected. You might even cheer up a friend by speaking of a lacuna in his hair-growth rather than mentioning baldness. Every mention my friend Carlton made of his political campaign last fall resulted in a lengthy lacuna in the conversation at the New Year's Eve party.

Etymology: From Latin lacuna "pool, pond, cavity, gap" from lacus "lake." "Lacuna" became French "lagune" and Italian "laguna" whence we borrowed "lagoon." The underlying root also developed into Gaelic loch "lake" (Loch Lomond, Loch Ness) and Serbian lokva "pool."

January 17, 2008

Tenter (noun)

Pronunciation: ['tent-êr]

Definition: No, not someone who lives in a tent, but an open frame with evenly spaced protruding hooks or nails for stretching cloth to dry without shrinking. The edges of the material are fastened to the nails all around the frame after the frame is adjusted to be slightly larger than the piece of cloth.

Usage: Non-shrink fabrics made tenters pretty much obsolete years ago but the word persists in the compound "tenterhooks," itself rarely used outside the phrase "to be on tenterhooks" (as opposed to tender hooks, which hold nothing). You may use this noun as a verb: to tenter material is to stretch it out on a frame.

Suggested Usage: For those of us who have seen curtains stretched on a tenter, the metaphor could not be more obvious: "If we don't finish this job today, the boss will have us on tenters." To be on tenterhooks, however, implies that you are in a state of heightened anticipation, as to be on tenterhooks to find out a final exam grade. Another way of expressing pretty much the same thing is to say you are on pins and needles. This phrase is probably in the process of replacing "on tenterhooks," as the concept of the tenter fades among ever younger generations.

Etymology: Today's word comes Latin tentorium "shelter made of stretched skins," from tendere "to stretch," also the origin of "tent." The original Proto-Indo-European root was *ten- "to stretch" and it came to English through its proto-Germanic ancestors as "thin," the state animal products reach when stretched. The Latin word, "tendere," also gave us "tender," "extend," and other words originally implying a stretch. "Tetanus" comes from the Greek variant in tetanus "stiff, rigid," another state arrived at by stretching. The same root turns up twice in Sanskrit, both as tasaram "shuttle" and tantram "loom," where shuttles are used. In Persian the [n] was lost to produce tar "string," which underlies Hindi "sitar."

January 18, 2008

Canny (adjective)

Pronunciation: ['kæn-ni]

Definition: Knowing, judicious, prudent; frugal; (Scottish) steady, restrained, and gentle.

Usage: Today's word has an odd orphan negative even though it survives with its original meaning unchanged. The negative, "uncanny," has come to mean "weird, of supernatural nature; eerie" and is no longer related semantically to today's word. The comparative forms are "cannier" and "canniest" while the adverb is "cannily" and the noun, "canniness."

Suggested Usage: Today's word works whenever you wish to characterize something as judicious and steady, "Father Gerhard's canny management of his parish spared it and him the embarrassment suffered in other parishes." Although this is the basic meaning of the word, it has a long association with the judicious control of financial matters, "Luella has a canny sense of exactly how much money her husband can expend over the weekend and arrive at work on time Monday morning—and she dispenses it accordingly."

Etymology: From Old English cunnan "to know how, be able to," also the origin of "cunning" and "couth," now found only in "uncouth," from Old English cuth "well-known, excellent." Another relative is the "kith" of "kith and kin" from Old English cyth "acquaintance, friendship, kinfolk." Old English "cnawan," today's "know," comes from the same ultimate root, *gno-. A descendent of this root is found in Latin cognscere "to come to know, get acquainted with" and ignorare "to not know, to disregard," underlying English "ignore" and "ignorant." With a different suffix, *(g)no-dhli- we get Latin nobilis "knowable, known, famous" and our word "noble." The Greek variants, e.g. gignskein "to know, think," lie behind English "gnome," "(a)gnostic," and "diagnosis."

January 19, 2008

Gazump (verb)

Pronunciation: [gê-'zêmp]

Definition: 'John gazumped Martha' = 'John rejected the price for his house offered by Martha, a would-be buyer, despite having originally accepted her offer, because he decided to accept a subsequent higher offer.'

Usage: Often used in the passive: "I had been looking forward to moving to Kensington, but I was gazumped at the last moment." This word presupposes a legal framework for house purchase, such as obtains in England, where the seller's acceptance of the purchaser's offer price is not binding on the seller until the 'exchange of contracts', usually 30 days before completion of the sale.

Suggested Usage: "I had arranged to help Andrea with her algebra homework, but that nerd Norman, who is always top in math, has gazumped me." "We were in negotiation with a famous pianist to play at to our local musical festival next October, but now we've been gazumped by Carnegie Hall—he's got an engagement there instead."

Etymology: From Yiddish gezumph "overcharge." It was adapted to real estate dealings in London in the 1970s, at a time of rapidly rising house prices."