Home »

• Word of the Day Index

January 27, 2008

Abeyance (noun)

Pronunciation: [ê-'bey-ênts]

Definition: Suspension, temporary inactivity; also, a lapse in succession between political leaders or a legal condition of non-ownership, when ownership of an estate has not been assigned.

Usage: "Abeyant" is the adjective form of today's word and means "being in abeyance." "Abeyance" is a mass noun with no plural. It is most often used in the phrase "in abeyance," meaning "suspended, held up."

Suggested Usage: A very apropos sentence presents itself for today's word: "King Edward the Confessor's death in 1066 left an abeyance that led to the Norman Invasion—which gave us today's word." The word has a lot of uses in today's business environment, as well, "The executive board meeting was left in abeyance when the police arrested the chairman." You never know these days when this phrase will come in handy.

Etymology: This word comes to us most recently from Anglo-Norman, the language that grew in England after the Norman Invasion of 1066. The Normans brought their legal system with them, along with nobles to run the newly conquered country, and installed their codes into the Anglo-Saxon system. The Old French was abeance "desire" from abaer "to gape at" itself from a- "at" + baer "to gape." "Baer" apparently comes from Vulgar Latin "*badare" but little is known of the origin of this word. In Middle English, the English that evolved from the pairing of Norman French and Anglo-Saxon, baer turned into baee "an opening" and, finally, to "bay" in the same sense.

January 28, 2008

Raffish (adjective)

Pronunciation: ['ræ-fish]

Definition: (1) Vulgar in taste, appearance, dissolute in behavior; rakish or (2) dashing, carefree or unconventionally fun-loving; rakish. Both apply to men.

Usage: Both "raffish" and "rakish" exemplify our long-standing indecision as to whether dissolute men are bad or fun. The original connotations of "rake" and "raff" were negative. Now both words are ambiguous, as are their normal adverbs on –ly and nouns on –ness.

Suggested Usage: The usage of this word depends on whether the unconventional is taken to be good or bad. If good, "He has raffish good looks that make him seem dangerous to conventional women." If bad, "His raffish behavior led him to become something of an outcast in his hometown." "Rakish" works the same way: "He was a certified rake in his youth and exploited the remnants of his rakishness among the daring women in town." 

Etymology: From raff "ordinary people" or "vulgar person," related to the phrases "the riff and raff" (one and all, every one) and "neither riff nor raff" (nothing at all). Probably borrowed from an old Swedish word meaning "garbage." "Riff-raff" shares the same source, meaning the same as "raff" alone. We see here a show of the Western assumption that what is ordinary is bad; just think of the connotations of "ordinary," "plain," "common," and—ugh!—"mediocre" today.

January 29, 2008

Pansophist (noun)

Pronunciation: [pæn-'so-fist]

Definition: Someone who leaves the impression that they know everything; a "know-it-all."

Usage: Today's noun may be used as an adjective, too; the noun is "pansophy" ['pæn-sê-fi]. Like pansophists themselves in the era of specialization, this word has become a rarity. It does retain a certain usefulness though and, like all our words, provides a few more threads about where we come from and how we have changed.

Suggested Usage: Don't you hate to hear yourself use hyperhyphenated words like "over-the-hill," "stick-to-itiveness," "johnny-come-lately"—ugh! Now you have a subtle cerebral substitute for that old hyperhyphenated "know-it-all:" "That supercilious pansophist doesn't impress me at all with his encyclopedia of trivia." Unfortunately, the age of pansophy and Renaissance men has passed; there is simply too much knowledge today.

Etymology: Greek pansophos "all-wise" from pan "all" + sophos "wise." The noun from the latter, sophia "knowledge, wisdom," appears in "philosophy" from Greek philosophia "love of knowledge." We have long since forgotten that "sophisticated" is supposed to mean "knowledgeable." Interesting fact: the patron saint of the Roman Catholic Church is the masculine St. Peter (the rock) while the Eastern Orthodox Church's patron saint is the feminine St. Sophia (wisdom).

January 30, 2008

Batrachomyomachy (noun)

Pronunciation: [bæ-trê-kê-mI-'om-ê-ki]

Definition: A fight over nothing; a storm in a teacup.

Usage: Although its usage seems not to be attested, "batrachomyomachian" [bæ-trê-kê-mI-o-'mæ-ki-ên] is a well-constructed adjective and someone given to batrachomyomachy might well be called a "batrachomyomachist" [bæ-trê-kê-mI-'om-ê-kist].

Suggested Usage: Fights over nothing are regrettably common: "The noise from upstairs suggests that the children have started a new batrachomyomachy." And those prepared to fight about nothing are even more common: "I see you already have five e-mails from Gordon, our office batrachomyomachist." Those willing to wait for you to finish uttering today's 7-syllable word may be less common—best rattle if off trippingly.

Etymology: The Greek word means "The Battle of Frogs and Mice." It is the title of a mock-heroic epic poem that recounts a tiny struggle around a small pond using overblown terms that recall the siege of Troy. Originally attributed to Homer, it probably dates from the fifth century BC and contains batrachos "frog," mus "mouse," and "machia" fighting. Batrachos gives us "batrachian," pertaining to a frog or toad and "batrachophagous," a synonym for a previous Word of the Day, "ranivorous." Mus, via Latin, gives us "murine," pertaining to mice; Latin musculus "little mouse" gives us "muscle," presumably a reference to the rippling of a powerful forearm. Finally, Greek machia comes from Proto-Indo-European *magh, meaning "power," which has also given us "mighty," "machine," "magic," "magus" and "dismay."

January 31, 2008

Waif (noun)

Pronunciation: [weyf]

Definition: An abandoned or orphaned child or young animal; a lost unclaimed object, especially one washed up on shore or blown in by the wind; a homeless wanderer.

Usage: Of all the meanings borne by today's word, that of "orphan" is probably the most common today. The relationship of the word's meaning to flotsam washed up or blown in, however, has left a slightly derogatory connotation on it. For that reason, The Church of England Waifs and Strays Society changed its name to The Church of England Children's Society some time ago.

Suggested Usage: In 'The Brook,' Tennyson refers to "old waifs of rhyme" rolling in his mind. Stolen goods cast away by a thief in flight are waifs to the extent their actual owners cannot be found. I can't remember how many waifs with wagging tails my children picked up on their way home from school as they grew up. Fortunately, the number of human waifs has been drastically reduced over the past century but the disgrace of abandoned children still haunts the human species.

Etymology: Today's word originates with the concept of something unclaimed, blown up by the wind. From Anglo-Norman waif "ownerless property," probably from Old Norse veif "something blown by the wind=a flag" from Germanic *waif- "wipe." Akin to Old English wipian "to wipe," Old French guiper "to cover with silk," and "whip" from Middle English "wippen"—all from Germanic *wipjan "to move back and forth." This word is also obviously related to "wave" and "waft."

February 1, 2008

Cursory (adjective)

Pronunciation: ['kêrs-êr-ee]

Definition: Passing over something in haste, paying little attention to detail, as a cursory reading of a text.

Usage: Today's word should not be confused with cursorial [kêr-'sor-ee-yêl] "adapted to or designed for running," as the cursorial legs of the ostrich. The adverb for today's word is "cursorily" ['kêrs-êr-ê-li] and the noun is "cursoriness."

Suggested Usage: It might seem that words based on the Latin root for "run" are running the English lexicon: "After a cursory discourse on the curriculum in the corridor, Carpenter concurred with his charge on the current courses and told him to carry on." But back to business. "Cursory" is most of ten associated with reading, but almost any activity may be cursory: "After cursorily dusting the room and pretending to vacuum, Valerie decided that the afternoon would be better spent watching soap operas."

Etymology: Late Latin cursorius "pertaining to running" from Latin cursor "runner" from currerre "to run." (Now you know why it can be so hard to find your cursor at certain times.) this root is found in many words borrowed from Latin, including "current," "corridor" (which explains why kids must run in one), "courier," "course," "corral" and Afrikaans kraal "corral, rural village." English "car" comes from Latin carrus "wagon" of the same root, which also underlies "career," "charge," and "chariot," not to mention "carpenter" from Latin carpentum "a two-wheeled carriage."

February 2, 2008

Dwam (noun)

Pronunciation: ['dwæm]

Definition: 1) A fainting fit, a swoon; 2) a daydream.

Usage: In north-eastern Scotland a sickly child can be called "dwamie" or "dwamish," demonstrating that the two meanings of "dwam" are not as far apart as they at first appear. The feverish child not only feels faint, but may also drift off into half-waking reveries. To be "in a dwam" is to be far gone in a daydream. The verb "to dwam" means "to faint," but to "dwam over" is simply to drift off gently to sleep or to take a nap.

Suggested Usage: "Dwamming over" is just as pleasant as it sounds: "I had just dwammed over nicely last Sunday afternoon, when some idiot phoned the wrong number and woke me up." But going into a dwam at the wrong moment can be problematic: "I came out of a dwam at the last board meeting to discover I'd been elected to chair the pay-review committee."

Etymology: Originally spelled "dwalm," this word reaches back to an old Germanic "strong" verb, the sort that switches vowels as it changes tense, like "swim : swam." In this case it shifted from "dwel-" to "dwal-" to "dwol-", and meant something like "to be stunned" or "to go astray." From the present tense of the same verb we have derived English "dwell," which originally meant "to delay" or "to desist from action," and only later shifted to take on its modern meaning of staying in one place for some time.