perquisite (2009-06-26)

Part of Speech: noun

Pronunciation: ['pêr-kwê-zit]

Definition: A benefit or emolument beyond a regular salary; a tip; a privilege of rank or office.

Usage: Perquisites come with a job or office, "I guess buying the president's lunch twice a week is a perquisite of the vice presidency." Perquisites also attach to social classes: "Telling an offspring when they can go and come is one of the perquisites of fatherhood," is a useful sentiment for fathers.

Suggested Usage: Today's word is another lexical orphan without any adjective or verbal form. It is often "clipped" in English slang to "perk" just as a benefit becomes a "benny." English speakers clip their words pretty indiscriminately. Usually, the end of a word is clipped as in this case but sometimes the beginning goes, as in "(tele)phone," "(tele)scope," and "(ham)burger." Occasionally, both ends of a word are clipped: "(in)flu(enza)" and "(re)fridge(rator)."

Etymology: Medieval Latin perquisitum "acquisition," the past participle of perquirere "to search diligently for," comprising per "through" + quaerere "to seek." The preposition "per" came from the same source as English "for," Greek peri- in "periscope," and "pere-" in Russian perestroika "rebuilding." In the old Iranian language, Avestan, pairidaeza- meant "a garden wall" composed of the Avestan reflex of the same root, pairi– "around" + daeza– "wall." Xenophon, who served in the Persian army and survived to write about it, used the word "paradeisos" to refer not to the wall but the luxuriant parks Persian shahs maintained inside them. By the time the word passed through Latin and French and on to English, its meaning had acquired the additional luster of our word "paradise."