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March 2, 2008

Gist (noun)

Pronunciation: [gist]

Definition 1: The real grounds for a case or argument; the substance of a matter, the essence of a matter.

Usage 1: Watch out for the spelling of this one; it is pronounced the same as "just" in many dialects of English. It is another bachelor word with no derivational offspring—no adjective or verb. It does not even have a plural.

Definition 2:(Obsolete) A stopping place or lodging along an itinerary (for people or migratory birds); the right to pasture cattle in a certain location.

Suggested Usage: The current meaning of "gist" is useful in separating the core of an event from the details, "I don't recall exactly what was said but the gist of the conversation was a promise never to divulge its contents." What is more intriguing, however, is the loss of the obsolete meaning (Definition 2). That sense deserves a prettier word than "stopover": "Our pond is a gist for a flock of Canada geese every spring." How about, "On our way to Hawaii we made a gist of San Francisco."

Etymology: Anglo-French, gist "it lies (is prostrate, is located)" from Middle French, from gesir "to lie," especially gésir en "to consist in, depend on" used in the Anglo-French legal phrase (cest action) gist (en) "this action lies (in)." Gésir comes to us from Latin iacere "throw," found in a plethora of English words with -ject and -jac in them: "object, abject, inject, project, trajectory" and "adjacent, subjacent" but also various words on "jet": "jettison, jetsam, jetty." The original root apparently did not make it to the Germanic languages but it was widely used in Latin.

March 3, 2008

Floccinaucinihilipilification (noun)

Pronunciation: [flak-si-na(w)-si-ni-hi-li-pi-li-fi-'key-shên]

Definition: Holding or judging something to be worthless.

Usage: The word's main function is to be exhibited as an example of a long English word, longer by a letter than the word most people think is the longest, "antidisestablishmentarianism," but no match for "pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis." There is also a widely underused verb, "floccinaucinihilipilificate." (A more useful noun with the same meaning is "floccinaucity" ['fla-si-'na(w)-si-tee].)

Suggested Usage: The word was first recorded in a letter by William Shenstone written in 1741 and published in 1777: "I loved him for nothing so much as his flocci-nauci-nihili-pili-fication of money". Don't forget that the verb is just as useless as the noun: "It is difficult for Flossie to avoid floccinaucinihilipilificating her nearly otiose husband, Otis."

Etymology: Back in the eighteenth century, the Eton Latin Grammar contained a rule that mentioned a set of words all of which meant "of little or no value": flocci, nauci, nihili, and pili. Someone, obviously, had to combine them and add the suffixes -ation to the result. Flocci is the plural of floccus "a tuft of wool" and pili, that of pilus "a hair." "Nihili" is from nihil "nothing," while "nauci" just means "worthless."

March 4, 2008

Putative (adjective)

Pronunciation: ['pyu-tê-tiv]

Definition: Commonly supposed; assumed without conclusive grounds for belief.

Usage: The only other derivational relative today's word has is the adverb "putatively." "Putative" is nearly synonymous with "reputed" but carries a strong connotation of untruth much more like "supposed."

Suggested Usage: Today's word suggests itself when any sort of reputation is at issue: "His putative expertise in car repair evaporated quickly in the heat of an actual motor under the hood of my car." The reputation does not have to be a human one, "My dog is the putative father of their dog's puppies, but, well, he was broken awhile ago so we had him fixed.

Etymology: From Old French "putatif," from Latin putare "to prune, think, reflect." The underlying root is *peu- "to cut, strike, stamp." It rendered other words a bit like "putative" in that they have to do with thinking or believing: "dispute" from Latin disputare "to think contentiously," "impute" from Latin imputare "to charge," and repute from Latin reputare "to examine repeatedly."

March 5, 2008

Flummox (verb)

Pronunciation: ['flê-mêks]

Definition:"Flummox" is hardly a word we proper speakers of English would use. It is a term originating in the musty dialects of Merry Old (England) that has assumed residence in the vocabularies of reporters. Its origin apparently flummoxed Dickens, who wrote in the Pickwick Papers in 1837 (xxxiii), "He'll be what the Italians call reg'larly flummoxed." In 1840 the Cambridge University Magazine printed, "So many of the men I know Were 'flummox'd' at the last great-go [the final examination at Oxford-Dr. Language]."

Suggested Usage: Today's contributor (see below), himself a journalist, writes, "A volatile stock that changes without regard to market expectations, for example, leaves investors 'flummoxed', according to my newspaper and others like it. I have yet to hear a real-life investor complain of such a condition." Perhaps they are too flummoxed to comment. More likely this results from the fact that the term seldom strays beyond the pale of journalism.

Etymology: According to the OED, it is probably of dialectal origin; cf. flummocks "to maul, mangle," flummock "slovenly person," also "hurry, bewilderment," flummock "to make untidy, to confuse, bewilder" variously used in Hereford, Gloucester, S. Cheshire, and Sheffield.

March 6, 2008

Touchstone (noun)

Pronunciation: ['têch-ston]

Definition: A smooth, black stone (basanite) used to test the quality of gold and silver by the color of the streak produced by rubbing it across the precious metal; any test of genuineness or excellence.

Usage: In the first scene of Beaumont & Fletcher's 'Four Plays in One: The Triumph of Honour,' one of the characters declares, 'Calamity is man’s true touchstone.' Many of us would agree.

Suggested Usage: A touchstone is a tool for measuring the genuineness of an object or quality: "Creativity is the touchstone of an excellent member of the company team." I think most women think the touchstone of a good husband is remembering their anniversary.

Etymology: 'têch-ston Today's compound comes from touch + stone, a calque (loan translation) of Old French "touchepierre," modern day "pierre de touché" (see also Spanish "piedra de toque"). French toucher "touch" (cf. "Touché!" in sportive or verbal fencing) shares an origin with Italian toccare "to touch," whose participle "toccata" refers to a musical piece emphasizing a variety of keyboard touches. Bach's 'Toccata and Fugue in D minor' is a majestic example. "Stone" is Germanic, related to German Stein "stone" and, more distantly, to Russian stena "wall" and Greek stia "pebble".

March 7, 2008

Matutolypea (noun)

Pronunciation: [mê-tu-tê-lê-'pee-ê]

Definition: A rare word for an everyday occurrence: ill-humor in the mornings, getting up on the wrong side of the bed.

Usage: Occasionally, we include a non-word in our Word of the Day series just to demonstrate the line we see between words and non-words (others may disagree). The Web has made it possible for everyone to publish words, genuine or not. Beware today's word: it is cute but not authentically derived.

Suggested Usage: This is obviously a facetiously concocted word that mixes Latin and Greek in a way impossible in either language. This is why it does not occur in any English dictionary, not even the Merriam-Webster, which accepts pretty much any word it bumps into. It is not clear why the concepts "dawn" + "grief" would refer to getting up on the wrong side of the bed rather than a sad dawn, a sad greeting to the dawn, etc. But there are even problems with the selection of the stems.

Etymology: Today's derivation was based on "Matuta" of Matuta Mater, the Roman goddess of the dawn, newborn babies, and harbors plus the Greek word for "grief, sorrow," lype. (The Latin word for morning is "aurora," also the chief goddess of dawn.) The Greek word for morning and the goddess of morning is "eos," so eostugia "morning sullenness," would be a more consistent derivation for the target meaning, though there is no evidence such a word was used in Greece. Of course, if "stick-to-it-iveness" can become an English word, so can today's, but we would recommend waiting to see if this word sticks.

March 8, 2008

Redound (verb)

Pronunciation: [ree-'dawnd]

Definition: To recoil or return, hence to have a consequence.

Usage: Today's word should not be confused with "rebound" which means to bounce back or recover, despite their phonological and semantic similarities. This word is also historically related to "redundant" via the movement of waves but there is no current semantic relationship.

Suggested Usage: This is a good word to weave into sermons to your loved ones, "Remember, every cigarette you smoke redounds on your health," or, "Your every deed redounds upon your reputation." Perhaps they will pay more attention to vocabulary-enriched advice.

Etymology: Via French from Latin redundare "flow over, overflow" from re(d)- "back, again" + undare "to surge" from unda "wave." "Unda" is a nasalized (containing an "n") variant of the original root *wd/wed/wod, which had these three variants in PIE (read "How is a Hippo like a Feather" in our library for more PIE). The same root underlies both "wet" and "water" in English and the nasalized variant turns up in "winter" (the wet season). The same root emerges in Russian voda "water" and "vodka." In Old Irish the same root became uisce "water" spelled today "whisky" in Scotland and "whiskey" in Ireland.