Pity

Pity is a word whose meaning is often used in two ways: as sympathy to someone who has experienced loss (showing compassion) or "as a matter of regret." The word originated from Latin, stemming from pius (meaning piety) and pietas (duty). It then went through Old French, and finally through the Middle English word pite. An example of how pity might be used today: It's a pity you cannot attend the party or I pity your family loss. Pity is usually a noun but may sometimes used as a verb when expressing pity as an action.

Source: American Heritage College Dictionary.

poem

I want to discuss this word because I feel like writing one at present but I am doing my homework instead! The American Heritage Dictionary defines the word as "a verbal composition designed to convey experiences, ideas, or emotions, characterized by the use of language chosen for its sound and suggestive power and by the use of literary techniques such as meter, metaphor, and rhyme." It perhaps was derived originally from the Greek "poiein" which means "to create", and became the Greek "poiema" then the Latin "poema," and still further through Old French to the French "poeme" before arriving at the word we use today. Interestingly, the last definition in the American Heritage Dictionary is "a creation, object, or experience having beauty suggestive of poetry" (my emphasis), which does not leave much of a story for me to tell of how "to create" became "poem"!

comeuppance

One of my favorite words is comeuppance. The definition given by our dictionary is, "A punishment or retribution that one deserves; one's just desserts." It's actually a very recent word made up in modern english, according to the Oxford English Dictionary. One of my friends said he always though it was come-up-ins. Alas, it is not spelled that way. I've had many people question me on the existance of this word, but they're all wrong! I like this word because for some reason it gratifies my mouth to say.

potion & poison

I chose these words because Kaiti's posting on jealous mentioned that jealous and zealous are both borrowings into English of the same Latin word, zelus. (On a side note, we could trace the words back a little bit more, since Latin zelus comes from Greek zelos.) I was struck by Kaiti's entry because it reminded me of the lovely phenomenon of doublets: words, like jealous and zealous, that have entered English as two distinct vocabulary items even though they come from the same word in their "original" language.

Potion and poison are one of my favorite doublet pairs. These words come from Latin potio, meaning "a drink." But in English they both now signify far-from-ordinary drinks.... And the scope of poison has even been extended so that it needn't be in the form of a drink at all.

Source: AHD

Fierce

As defined by our trusty American Heritage College Dictionary the word 'fierce' can mean a multitude of things (multitude is also a fun word); it can mean "1. Having a savage and violent nature; ferocious." It can also mean "3. Strenuously active or resolute" and also, "6. Savage or threatening in appearance."
The word has traveled from the Latin term ferus, wild, (from indo-european root ghwer meaning "wild beast") and was then passed on through the Old French and then made it's appearance in Middle English in the form fiers.
What attracts me to this word is that although six different definitions are used for this one word, none of them seem to encompass the seemingly positive meanings encompassed by Ms. Tyra Banks in America's Next Top Model. When I first saw an episode in which she told one of her contestants to be "fierce" I was so confused by her use of the word, I went to look it up. Which really, just confused me more. To this day, when I hear someone use the word "fierce" as a compliment I am confused. Apparently it is now a good thing to look savage, threatening, and/or violent. To say that one's handbag is "fierce" seems rather odd to me. I (and apparently the AHD) have yet to be updated on this new definition.

Jealous

With no real idea as to what word I wanted to post tonight, I sat down and let my dictionary fall open to any page it wanted to. I randomly pointed down, and my finger was pointing at a list of synonyms for "jealous".
Jealous is actually an interesting word once you know a slight background. It is originally from the Latin word "zelus", the same word we get our "zealous" from. We generally associate zealousness with something good (an enthusiastic devotion to something), where as jealousness is usually tied with something not so good (resentful or bitter in rivalry; envious). I find it interesting that two words, that mean completely different things, can come from the same parent word. Of course, I suppose they can go hand in hand at times. For example, if you get too zealous about something and then someone else decides to be zealous about the same thing, you might get jealous about any attention they get towards their devotion. (Geez, between zealous and jealous, there ought to be a poem...:D...)


-American Heritage College Dictionary

Fluorescence

This word is defined as "the emission of electromagnetic radiation, esp. of visible light, stimulated in a substance by the absorption of incident radiation and persisting only as long as the stimulating radiation is continued." "Fluor-" comes from the Latin word fluere, meaning "to flow," and "-escence," denoting a state or process, comes from the Latin suffix -escentia, which came to our language through French.
I think that it is interesting that this is a word very commonly used in our day and age, but one that is most likely not understood entirely by most people who use it in terms of its true meaning ... it's sort of a testament to the way in which technology is now taken for granted.

Zany

Zany has a very interesting background. As a noun, it is defined as "a comic performer who assists or imitates a clown, acrobat, or mountebank" or "a comical person given to extravagant or outlandish behavior" (The American Heritage College Dictionary, 4th ed., p 1592). However, its popular usage is as an adjective that attributes the noun as something clownish or "comical because of incongruity or strangeness" (loc. cit.)
According to the American Heritage College Dictionary, zany entered English through the French word "zani," which came from the a regional dialect of Italian's "zanni." The interesting part is that "Zanni" is a variation of the Italian word "Gianni," which means John. John was a character in the Italian comedy: commedia dell'arte. This was a traveling troupe of ten people (eight men and two women), who performed improvisational theatre from the 16th century to the 18th century. Their skits were about adultry, jealousy, love, and old age. They used routines and props to play out either small skits, burle (jokes), or improv. dialogue. Out of these troupes we get the precursers of clowns: the Zanni and the Harlequin (Wikipedia)

The picture is from Wikiepdia. It was done by Karel Dujardins, and it shows one such commedia dell'arte troupe.

escape

Escape comes from Vulgar Latin's excappare, meaning "to get out of one's cape, get away." From that emerged escaper in Old North French, which then passed into English as escapen and finally, escape. The word's current meanings include not only "to break loose from confinement, get free," but also "to interrupt a command, exit a program, or change levels within a program by pressing the escape key." The latter definition is a long way from people ditching their cloaks to get away from pursuers, but now a wonderful image comes to mind when I hit the escape key.

-Information from the American Heritage Dictionary

Cul-de-sac

Cul-de-sac is, as defined by our American Heritage College dictionary, "a dead-end street." It is also a "saclike cavity or tube open only at one end." This noun is French and the cul means bottom, the de means of and the sac means sack. So literally the bottom of a sack. This makes sense when used referring to the kind of road, since there is a kind of circular sack of road with one opening. 

The reason I love the word is that for the longest time when I was little I used to refer to culs-de-sac as "sackets." So when I finally started saying the correct name for them, I was so proud of myself, that I said the word over an over again. I have also just illustrated another reason why I love this word. The plural for cul-de-sac is culs-da-sac! The 's' is in the middle of the word and I think that is just snazzy! 

Pandemonium

Pandemonium is defined by the OED as:

A centre of vice or wickedness; a haunt of evil. Now: esp. a place or state of utter confusion and uproar; a noisy disorderly place.

Utter confusion, uproar; wild and noisy disorder; a tumult; chaos. (Now the usual sense).

It was first used in Milton's Paradise Lost as the capital of Hell. It was made from the Greek root pan meaning "all", and the Latin root daemonium meaning "demon", which itself comes from the Greek daimonion. So essentially when someone describes a place as being in pandemonium they are saying that it is full of demons.

-Oxford English Dictionary

Panic

In Greek mythology, the god of flocks, fields, and woods is Pan, a man with the legs, horns, and ears of a goat. Pan's name is also cited by the AHD as the ultimate source (in the Greek language) for the word "panic." Panikos, is defined as being "of Pan (a source of terror, as in flocks), groundless (AHD)."

Prior to entering the English language, panic went through French--and picked up some extras as it lingered: panique (terrified)(AHD).

The word is now used to characterize, as defined by AHD (italics mine, to show how 'flock' stuck-around from its origins in Greek, until today):

1. A sudden overpowering terror, affecting many people at once.

2. A sudden widespread alarm concerning finances, often resulting in a rush to sell.

3. Slang One that is uproariously funny.

Soccer

The American Heritage College Dictionary defines soccer as “A game played on a rectangular field with net goals at either end in which two teams of 11 players each try to drive a ball into the other’s goal by kicking, heading, or using any part of the body except the hands.” People play this game all over the world, but those in many countries do not call it 'soccer.’ This discrepancy attracted me to the word. Here’s what I discovered: the word ‘soccer’ is a bastardization of “assoc.,” an abbreviation of “association football” (The American Heritage College Dictionary).

purple

This lovely color, which the American Heritage Dictionary describes as “a hue between violet and red,” was “once a symbol of royalty or high office.” After our class discussion on turtur and turtle, I wondered if purple might have traveled a similar path, bearing in mind that there is a modern German word Purpur, meaning “velvet.” The AHD states that this word came from the Greek porphura, a shellfish yielding purple dye. The Greek word made its way into Latin as purpura, “purple,” and became purpure in Old English, meaning “purple garment.” This later morphed into purpul, and was bequeathed to modern English via Middle English. As for the similarity to German, it seems plausible that Purpur came from the same Greek/Latin stream. In English, the meaning of purple has retained its association with color, whereas the German word-sibling is still related to textiles. It would seem that the historical meaning diverged such that (at least) these two modern languages carry one half of an antiquated definition. The mollusk connection, however, has been cast to the sea.

DISCO

"I like dancing. At the disco. I want blisters. You're my leader. I wanna' ride on a white horse. I want to ride on a white horse."

The earliest written instance of the word disco mentioned in the Oxford English dictionary is in a sentence from a 1964 issue of Playboy: "Los Angeles has emerged with the biggest and brassiest of the discos."¹

Disco was originally simply a clipped form of discotheque, from French discothèque, meaning "a nightclub" --itself an alteration of Italian discoteca, which meant "a record library," from Latin discus, meaning "disc," and biblioteca, meaning "library."²

Discothèques existed in France for thirty years before journalists associated the term with American funk music. I like to picture a nicotine-stained dance hall right after World War II and a man in back hiding in a mountain of worn records --the best jazz library in France.

And not those shiny vinyl records, either. I mean records like 78 rpm hubcaps. The dust-heavy artifacts of your grandparents' house.

---

¹"disco." Oxford English Dictionary. 2008. Oxford University Press. 25 Jan 2009. http://dictionary.oed.com/cgi/entry/50065253
²"discotheque."American Heritage College Dictionary. 4th ed. 2008. Houghton Mifflin.

assassin

An assassin is "one who murders by surprise attack, esp. one who carries out a plot to kill a prominent person."

The etymological history of this word is very interesting. It comes to English through French from Latin, from the Arabic ḥaššāšī, plural of ḥaššāš, meaning hashish user.

Who would have thought the word for hashish user would come to signify a deadly person?

--The American College Dictionary Fourth Edition

Palpitate

The American Heritage dictionary defines the word palpitate as being, "To move with a slight tremulous motion; tremble, shake or quiver." It also means to beat excessively or throb, as in having your heart palpitate. The word's origin is Latin and comes from the word palpitare, palpitat-. I personally like the word because it reminds me of my high school in a health class. I like how the word sounds very precise and clear. It's almost as if you know the meaning as soon as you hear the word, whether or not you had ever heard it before. 

clean

I choose this word because it is what I have been doing all morning. Clean, in the sense that I am experiencing it today, is an adjective defined as "free from dirt, stain, or impurities; unsoiled" by the American Heritage Dictionary. It is perhaps ultimately derived from the Old English "claene" and came to Modern English through the Middle English "clene."

Queue

According to the American Heritage College Dictionary, queue means ' a line of waiting people or vehicles' and also means 'a long braid of hair worn hanging down the back of the neck; a pigtail'. It is a sibling of the french equivalent, came from Old French cue, meaning 'tail', which came from the Latin cauda.
According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the first use of queue in this sense was in 1837 by T. Carlyle who wrote " That talent,... of spontaneously standing in queue, distinguishes,... the French People."

I think it is a fun word. Not only does it have an interesting spelling (how often to you see "ueue" in a word?), but it also has a great first reference. Go French People! Good job spontaneously standing in queue!

Monday

The American Heritage Dictionary defines Monday as "the second day of the week." Monday is an Old English word, orginally Monandaeg, which continues through Middle English (AHD). Monandaeg is the Old English translation of Latin lunae dies, "day of the moon" (AHD). OED.com traces Monday as far back as the Enchiridion by Byrhtferth. A fitting alternative definition of Monday is "a large, heavy sledgehammer" (OED.com). Need I spell out the figurative meaning any more?

Drizzle

Drizzle is a word meaning to rain gently in fine mistlike drops. As a noun drizzle is often referred to as a fine, gentle, misty rain. Drizzle word origins date back to Old English and come from the word ending -drysnian, meaning to pass away or vanish. The word then passed through Middle English before entering Modern English from the word drisning, which means fall of dew.

-American Heritage College Dictionary.

Plethora

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the word plethora originated from the ancient Greek word plethein, meaning, to be full. This word stems from the Indo-Europeon root pele; to fill. The noun then passed into post-classical Latin and took the meaning, "fullness of habit" under its known name plethora. Those at www.oed.com speculate that the word came into its english usage through Middle French; plethore, in 1537, later to be used in Italian medicine with the word, pletora, and finally being adopted by the Portugese in 1601 as plethora.

The word is interesting in the sense that it has two different definitions;
In medicine, plethora orginally was defined as "an overabundance of one or more humours, especially blood". Its current medical use describes an excess of blood in the circulatory system or in a specific organ/area.

In everyday use, the word is used to depict an excess or superabundance.

Absurd

Absurd comes from the Latin word absurdus, meaning muffled or out of tune.

Today, it is most often used to describe something ridiculously incongruous or unreasonable.

However, my favorite definition of absurd is "the condition or state in which humans exist in a meaningless, irrational universe wherein people's lives have no purpose or meaning".

Not to say that I am a nihilist, but I do enjoy absurdism over all other forms of comedy, such as Monty Python's Flying Circus.

rankle

Rankle is a verb meaning "to irritate." It entered English most immediately from the Old French verb rancler, which itself was formed from the Old French noun draoncle meaning "festering sore." That noun had come from the Latin noun dracunculus meaning "little snake" (the -culus ending is a diminutive added on to the Latin word for snake, draco, draconis). So when something rankles you, think of it as a little snake nipping at you. (Surely that's better than thinking of something that rankles you as a festering sore?)

And, FYI, the dropping of the d- in the move from draoncle to rancler is an example of the linguistic phenomenon known as aphaeresis--the loss of one or more letters or sounds at the beginning of a word.

Source for etymology of rankle: Chambers Dictionary of Etymology

Tranquility

My reasoning behind the word tranquility, other than the fact that it rolls off the tongue, is the fact that after saying it, you really do feel its meaning.

It comes from the latin "tranquillus" and is defined as: the quality or state of being tranquil; serenity.

I also always think of the french translation, tranquilite. In the movie, Chocolat (dorky, I know), they describe a small village using this word, and so I always have that mental image.

So, in stressful times, such as college classes and what not, I think a little tranquility goes a long way, and I appreciate that.

Hijinks

The word hijinks is amazing for two reasons. Firstly because it has three dotted letters in a row (iji). Secondly, because there is no situation that cannot be descibed best by adding "hijinks ensue" onto the end. For instance: I post to the blog. Hijinks ensue!

According to the dictionary it is actually a contraction of "high jinks," which is slightly disappointing, because it means there's no wierd etymology behind it. In fact, there doesn't seem to be any known etymology on the word "jink." Which I guess is cool in its own way.

Dastardly

Dastardly is an adjective used to describe some thing or some one as cowardly and malicious. It comes from the word dastard a noun meaning a sneaky, malicious coward. These words hardly come to mind when describing some one, but I have found them slipping into my vocabulary from viewing classic cinema. Every time I think of the word dastardly, an image of a silhouette of a man with a curled up mustache and top hat or the Hanna-Barbera character Dick Dastardly.

Awe

This is a word that is, all to often, taken for granted. "Awe" is not only a near onomatopeia, describing the sound that a crowd breathes at the heart stopping bang of a firework, but it is a powerfully encompassing word. Most of us use "awesome" and "awful" on a daily basis, which are also wonderful words taken for granted. Its definition is (forgive me, but I don't have our class dictionary on me): "an overwhelming feeling of reverence, admiration, fear, etc., produced by that which is grand, sublime, extremely powerful." Its almost as if, when this word was created, someone decided that creating a word for the feeling would be impossible, so they took the sound of a brain slowing down in the face of something terrible....awesome....awful.

teetotalling

I like the word teetotalling. Coined in the 1800s by one Richard Turner, teetotal is a variation on total that Mr. Turner used in a speech to advance his thoughts on the prohibition of alcohol. Before I knew the history of the word, it reminded me of a tipsy, tottering seesaw -- certainly not the intention of a member of the British Temperance Society!

jubilee

I really like the word jubilee. It conjures images of a very joyous occasion and the excitement that surrounds it. It's such a fun word and should be used more often.

Laughter

This word became my favorite only recently. It is a word that can bring to mind, depending on the mind frame of the listener, thoughts of harshness; reminders of past merriment; or an almost dizzying sense of peace. For me, it is the embodiment of daily life and also (in its more positive forms) what I strive for daily- happiness and peace, joy and love, and fun. (Similarly I love the term "smile")

Flitted

I guess I just like how the word sounds. "Flit" is nice, too, but for best results convert all sentences containing the word into past tense. That way, as the tongue crafts the word "flitted" into being, it mimics the movement of the songbird or other creature it might be describing.

miffed

I love this word because its sound seems to directly convey its meaning. Also let's face it, words with the double consonants in the middle are just fun to utter. To be honest, I probably use this word quite a bit, because it is just so fun to say. It's not my very favorite word (because I simply cannot choose just one), but believe me when I say I love to say "miffed" out loud.

Strawberry

Strawberry is one of my favorite words because of all the things it brings to mind. Not only do I clearly picture the vibrant red skin of a delicious strawberry, and the sweet taste of the fruit itself, but it also brings back summer memories of picnics and parks and hunting for the not-so-satisfying wild strawberries to eat. Strawberry for me is a word that embodies happy memories of warm days and satisfaction with simply being.

The anti-entry: slacks

I loath the word "slacks." It has a slimy sounding beginning with an "ack" of an icky ending.  Slacks! The word almost smacks you in the face with its somehow simultaneously harsh slipperiness. The American Heritage College dictionary defines slacks as, "Casual trousers that are not part of a suit." I even dislike its definition, since the word "trousers" is another word I particularly dislike. Why can people not use the word pants? Perhaps I am being a bit harsh on these words. I do appreciate the attempts to give more description than a simple "he is wearing pants." Some might even think that using the word pants is lacking in description. There is just something about how the word sounds and the connotation it calls to mind that makes it hard for me not to cringe whenever someone tells me about their new slacks. 

Grok

I got so excited to discover that this word can actually be found in our class dictionary. It comes from Stranger in a Strange Land, a science fiction novel written by Robert Heinlein in 1961. It is a word supposedly derived from ancient Martian to mean (according to the American Heritage College Dictionary), "to understand profoundly through intuition or empathy". According to Heinlein, the word translates literally as "to drink", but means "to understand so thoroughly that the observer becomes a part of the observed—to merge, blend, intermarry, lose identity in group experience. It means almost everything that we mean by religion, philosophy, and science—and it means as little to us (because of our Earthly assumptions) as color means to a blind man." The idea of linguistic determinism, or that language shapes one's thoughts, was popular at the time of its writing. I love that the English language managed to scoop up and embrace a word as silly and made-up as "grok"-- what a true testament to its flexibility! Not only is it in the dictionary, but there are many references to it in popular culture even today.

It's a secret wish of mine to coin a term that finds its way into the dictionary. How hard could it really be?

razzmatazz

I like the word razzmatazz because it has four zs. Not one, not two, but four. Razzmatazz also suggests that you are about to be swindled, but that you'll enjoy the ride.

Scarlet

Sure, "scarlet" is an awkward word to like. A color is very specific and can only be used to modify a noun, so obviously it cannot be inserted at random into any conversation. But the word "scarlet" gives me a good rush of emotions and imagery. I immediately think of a pure, vibrant warmth mixed with a subdued, dark, and velvety foreboding desire. It gives me the impression of blood (which is life), or of naughty acts only committed under the most guilty and sensual consent. Plus, it's just a really pretty color.

Breakfast

It took me too long in life to realize that this word truly is about breaking one's fast after a night of sleep, but it is also partly what sparked my interest in exactly where it is that the words we use almost negligently come from. I also like the way that the hard, consonant sounds of the k and the t reflect a brisk start to the morning.

Multitudinous

For its wealth of syllables, repetition of hard consonants, simple vowel sounds, and for its context within Macbeth, multitudinous may just be my favorite word. 

"Will all great Neptune's ocean wash this blood/Clean from my hand? No, this my hand will rather/The multitudinous seas incarnadine,/Making the green one red."

Incandescent

Incandescent is one of my favorite words. I don't get to use it very often and probably wouldn't if I had the chance to. I think the word should be stored up and used on only very special occasions. Saying the word itself makes me feel as if I'm about to transport into a dream.

Whimsical

Whimsical is one of my favorite words and I love when I am able to use it in daily conversation. It rolls off of the tongue in a smooth manner, and is just all around "fun" to say.

Weird

My favorite word in the entire English language must be "weird". I've always thought it not only sounded odd, but looked very much so! I've been told that it once was used in reference to witches, like the "weird sisters" or whathaveyou, but I've never researched that. I just know it makes me smile whenever I have to say it. :)

scrunch

I like this word because of the way it feels when I say it. Plus, point of interest, it embodies what it expresses: it's only one syllable, but it manages to squeeze in six separate sounds.

Boycott

In the late 19th century, former English Captain Charles Boycott went to work for an absentee landlord in Ireland. Having been refused their request for lower rents, the Irish tenants organized an effective isolation of Boycott. They refused to sell to him; buy from him; work for him; and speak to him.

Hearing Dr. McAinsh relate this story – far better than I just did – surprised me because the word “boycott” was something I had always taken for granted. Who would have thought its less than 120 years old?

Kookaburra

A kookaburra is a bird which is native to Australia. The word comes from the Wiradhuri word "gugubarra". Wiradhuri is "a Aboriginal language of SE Australia" (American Heritage Dictionary). I like this word not only because it's fun to say but because the bird is quite silly as well. It's a bird which is about the size of two fists and always looks like it's smiling. And, as the AHD puts it so well, it has " a call that resembles raucous laughter". Such a funny bird. Oh yeah, and it's fuzzy.

rip!

"Adverbs are shit. Remember that. If you use the right verbs, you don't need 'em." --my grandfather spit the best bit of writing advice I've ever received into an old Folger's tin.

I've been given at least a hundred coffee cans full of advice since then; of varying quality, of course, but only one other piece I've heard resonates with the same succinct insight:

"Stick to short, earthy words. They sound less clinical than the Latin ones."

I believe that verbs are the left and right ventricals of the English language, and it's their imperative to pump as much life into a sentence in as few syllables as possible.

My favorite word is "rip." It's impossible to say it aloud without triggering poignant flashbacks of a once-cherished piece of clothing.

That's a powerful verb.

sonnet

Since we'll be talking about Shakespeare's sonnets throughout the semester, I thought I'd write the first entry about sonnet. I like this word because it contains a diminutive ending (-et), used to signal that something is small. Etymologically speaking, a sonnet is a "little song." We have another word in English that also etymologically means "little song"--canticle (the -cle is another diminutive). Despite their similar base meanings, the words are not used synonymously: canticle has religious connotations and is most often used for hymns.