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May 4, 2008

Mickle (adjective)

Pronunciation: ['mi-kêl]

Definition: Great, large; a great number, many, much.

Usage: Today's word is used much more in Scotland than anywhere else but that does not prohibit its use elsewhere. It has no need for relatives since, though basically an adjective, it may just as properly be used as a noun, pronoun, or adverb. As a noun, this word is sometimes written "muckle." In fact, a very famous Scottish proverb is "Mony's the mickle that mak's the muckle," which means that many little things go into the making of a big one.

Suggested Usage: Here is how today's word works as an adverbial quantifier, "When Addie agreed to marry him, Thornton leapt with so mickle joy that he left his shoes behind." Since the word is an adjective, too, "such mickle joy" would work here just as well. The sound of this word is so English, it yearns to lean against other English words, "Addie worried that she spoke too quickly and now might be in a mickle pickle." Of course, now you might be mixing dialects.

Etymology: Today's word, a cousin of "much," was yet another salvaged from oblivion by our Scottish cousins. In Old English it was "micel" akin to Old Norse "mikill." The original root was Proto-Indo-European *meg- "large," found in Latin magnus "great," which underlies "magnitude," "magnum," "magnificent" and "magnify." It appears in the name of the last letter in the Greek alphabet, "omega," from o-mega "large o," to distinguish it from the short o-micron "small o." In Hindi it emerges in a series of words based on Sanskrit mah-, mahat- "great," such as maharajah "great king," maharishi "great seer," and, of course, the Hindu with the great life, Mahatma Gandhi.

May 5, 2008

Forgo (verb)

Pronunciation: [fo(r)-'go]

Definition: To go without, to refrain from.

Usage: "Forgo" should be the correct spelling of this word but "forego" is now also accepted. Since the prefix on "forego" is more closely associated with the sense "before," this verb's meaning should be restricted to "go before, precede," a meaning it does bear. The prefix "for-," on the other hand, was used in Old English to create verbs with a sense of exclusion or loss, such as "forbid," "forget," "forsake," and "forfeit." Thus it fits the meaning of today's word better. "Forgo" conjugates in the same way as its parent "go," so we have "forgoes," "forgoing," "forgone" and "forwent" in the past tense. Someone who forgoes something is a "forgoer."

Suggested Usage: Any act of self-denial, from the self-serving to the selfless, can occasion the use of today's word: "I think I'll forgo a starter; I've just glimpsed the dessert trolley." It does, however, seem to arise frequently when food is at stake, "As ever, the piper forewent the haggis during its traditional arrival in the dining room. But he could not forgo a taste of it afterwards."

Etymology: Old English "for-" can be traced to a Germanic root "*fer-, *far-" of similar meaning, which gave us both "veer" and "frump." Beyond that, we can detect the fertile Proto-Indo-European root "*per", which as usual changed its initial "p" to an "f" on entering the Germanic languages, where it also gave rise to "far," "forth," "further," "fro," "first" and our old friend "fore," among others. In passing through other languages, "*per" has provided us with the prefixes "proto-," "para-," and "peri-" and words as varied as "paradise," "perestroika," "prince" and "prow." "Go" comes from PIE "*ghe-", also responsible for "gait," "gate" and the "gang" of "gangway."

May 6, 2008

Diffident (adjective)

Pronunciation: ['di-fi-dênt]

Definition: Shy, bashful, or hesitant as a result of a lack of self-confidence.

Usage: Although OED accepts "distrustful" as an alternate meaning of "diffident," this meaning is surely archaic in the States and probably elsewhere. The antonym of today's word is "confident," whose meaning has changed in the same direction as "diffident" (compare Etymology below). The noun is "diffidence."

Suggested Usage: This word's uses in limning matters of the heart are legion: "Reginald's diffident touch when their hands brushed was the quality that made Dorothea love him." Certainly, we all know someone who seems to be inhibited until more layers of her personality are revealed: "Don't be fooled by Althea's diffident manner when you first meet her — she will soon enough have you doubled over in laughter." On the other hand, "Carlos works at being a wonderful audience for friends because his diffidence prevents his taking center stage alone."

Etymology: Middle English from the Latin present participle of diffidere, "to mistrust:" dis-, dis- + fidere, "to trust." The Indo-European root of "fidere" is bheidh-, "to confide, persuade, trust" and it gives us words that have to do with emotional warmth and closeness: abide, fiancé, confide and confidant, faith and fidelity. Put a negative prefix on the derivations from "bheidh-" and you get infidel, defiance and perfidy -- fightin' words about betrayal.

May 7, 2008

Glitch (noun)

Pronunciation: ['glich]

Definition: An unexpected change; a minor technical problem or failure resulting in a short delay.

Usage: The plural of today's word is "glitches." So far only one derivative from it has appeared, the adjective "glitchy." The difference between today's word and "bug" (a common clipping of bugaboo or bugbear "hobgoblin") is that "bug" refers to a fundamental defect in a hardware or software product requiring substantive repair work while a glitch is just a minor problem resulting in a short delay. A "hitch," as in "without a hitch," refers to a sudden halt or a snag that completely stops a process.

Suggested Usage: The most common use of "glitch" is in the phrase "without a glitch" as in, "The wedding would have come off without a glitch, had Monique not said, 'I don't' instead of 'I do.'" This, of course, is a joke since such a mistake would hardly qualify as a minor technical problem. A more serious usage would be, "Actually, the only glitch in the wedding was the groom's arriving late."

Etymology: From Yiddish glitsh "a slip, lapse" from glitshn "to slip" from Middle High German glitschen, alteration of gliten "to glide." In Modern German glitschen means "to slither" but gleiten retains its original meaning "glide, float, slip." Other related words include Old English glida "kite (the hovering bird)," glib, probably related to Lower German glibberisch "slippery." (This word could work in English for "glib gibberish," couldn't it?) Since what is slippery is also usually smooth and reflective, "glare," "glimmer," "glow"—even "gold"—might also be related. If so, the Polish monetary unit, the zloty, derived from their word for gold, "zloto," also shares the same ultimate source. "Glitch" itself first appeared in 1962 in the writing of the US astronaut John Glenn, who claims that the word originally referred to an unexpected change in an electrical current at NASA. However, it soon spread to other types of anomalies and thence to any, usually minor, technical malfunction.

May 9, 2008

Flak (noun)

Pronunciation: ['flæk]

Definition: Antiaircraft artillery or fire; (colloquial) heavy criticism.

Usage: John Spriggs of Roke Manor Research Institute in Romsey, Hampshire submitted today's word, writing that "The place in which I am writing this has been written of variously as a 'flak farm,' the 'flak shack.' and a 'flak home' by American airmen who were here at various times in the period from 1943 to 1945." In the US the word has been extended to "flak jacket," a slang expression for a bullet-proof vest as well as for heavy criticism.

Suggested Usage: Hopefully, the last round of actual flak will occur in our lifetimes. Who knows what will happen to this word in the tranquil aftermath of that eventual moment. Expressions such as, "Oleander took a lot of flak for wearing mismatched socks to the news conference," may disappear altogether. In the meantime, we may continue to use expressions like, "My proposal to filter company e-mail for romantic dalliances among employees received a lot of flak when I mentioned it this morning," in informal conversations. It would not be used in formal written English even today.

Etymology: Today's word is an acronym derived from the German word Fliegerabwehrkanone (Flieger+Abwehr+Kanone) "flier defense cannon." The British called flak "ack-ack" or "Archie" during most of World War II. "Ack" was then the British symbolic enunciation for "a" so "ack-ack" stood for a-a (anti-aircraft), just as "ack emma" stood for AM. In December 1942 "ack" was replaced by "able" as the symbolic enunciation of "a" in the military system of symbolic letter substitutes.

May 10, 2008

Denizen (noun)

Pronunciation: ['den-ê-zên]

Definition: (1) A plant, animal, or person that legitimately belongs in a certain area or place, whether they reside there or appear there frequently, as violets are denizens of the wood, fish are denizens of the deep, and criminals are denizens of jails; (2) (British) A foreigner granted rights of residency without rights of holding office or inheritance.

Usage: The broader sense of today's word does not allow much in the way of derivations. The British sense, however, implies a process (to be denizened in a country) and the status of "denizenship" (to have rights of denizenship revoked).

Suggested Usage: Today's contributor quickly noted that saying, "I am a denizen of Camden County," suggests a much deeper and more intriguing involvement in the county than merely saying, "I am an inhabitant of Camden County" or even "I am a native of Camden County." Keep in mind, though, the beasts who live in Camden County are also denizens, not to mention the birds and the trees they nest in. Here is another way of thinking about your school, "The denizens of Highbrow High are generally accepted in the best colleges and universities."

Etymology: In Middle English today's word was "denisein, from Anglo-Norman "deinzein" from Late Latin deintus "from within" based on de "from" + intus "inside." French dedans "inside" shares the same origin.