Word Origins

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This set gives the word orgins for the words mentioned in the "Word Crunchers"

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conscientious: According to American writer and editor H.L. Mencken, "Conscience is the inner voice which warns us someone may be looking." A person who is conscientious makes sure that if others are watching, they like what they see. "Conscience" and "conscientious" both come from the Latin verb "conscire," a word that means "to be conscious" or "to be conscious of guilt" and that traces back to a still older Latin word, "scire," meaning "to know."
capacious: Capacious is derived from Latin capax, capac-, "able to hold or contain."
misoneism: From Italian misoneismo, from Greek miso- (hate) + neos (new). Ultimately from Indo-European root newo- (new) that also gave us new, neo-, neon, novice, novel, novelty, innovate, and renovate.
jeopardize: It may be hard to believe that "jeopardize" was once controversial, but in 1870 a grammarian called it "a foolish and intolerable word," a view shared by many 19th-century critics. The preferred word was "jeopard," which first appeared in print in the 14th century. (The upstart "jeopardize" turned up in 1582.) In 1828, Noah Webster himself declared "jeopardize" to be "a modern word, used by respectable writers in America, but synonymous with 'jeopard,' and therefore useless." Unfortunately for the champions of "jeopard," "jeopardize" is now much more popular. In fact, it's been about a hundred years since anyone has raised any serious objections to "jeopardize."
Roborant: From Latin roborare (to strengthen), from robor- (oak, hardness). Ultimately from the Indo-European root reudh- (red) that also gave us red, rouge, ruby, ruddy, rubella, robust, corroborate, and rambunctious
brummagem: After Brummagem, a dialectal form of Birmingham, UK, where counterfeit coins were produced in the 17th century. Brummie is a nickname for someone from Birmingham.
impuissant: Both the adjective "impuissant" and the noun "impuissance" came to English from Middle French. They are derived from the prefix "in-" (meaning "not") and the noun "puissance," which means "power" and is a word in English in its own right. "Puissance" derives from the verb "poer," meaning "to be able" or "to be powerful," and is ultimately related to the same Latin roots that gave us words such as "power" and "potent." While both "puissant" and "impuissance" first appeared in English during the 15th century, "impuissant" did not make its first appearance in our language until 1629.
widow's walk: In the 18th and 19th centuries sailors' wives used such platforms to look for signs of their husbands returning home.
harbinger: Harbinger, which originally signified a person sent ahead to arrange lodgings, derives from Middle English herbergeour, "one who supplies lodgings," from Old French herbergeor, from herbergier, "to provide lodging for," from herberge, "a lodging, an inn" (cp. modern French auberge), ultimately of Germanic origin.
deadman's hand: After Wild Bill Hickok, nickname of James Butler Hickok (1837-1876). Hickok was a legendary figure in the American Wild West who worked variously as an army scout, lawman, and professional gambler. He was shot dead while playing poker, holding a hand that had two aces and two eights.
Cockaigne: Cockaigne comes from Middle English cokaygne, from Middle French (pais de) cocaigne "(land of) plenty," ultimately adapted or derived from a word meaning "cake."
verdure: Verdure is from Old French verd, green, from Latin viridis.
obeisance: When it first appeared in English in the late 14th century, "obeisance" shared the same meaning as "obedience." This makes sense given that "obeisance" can be traced back to the Anglo-French verb "obeir," which means "to obey" and is also an ancestor of our word "obey." The other senses of "obeisance" also date from the 14th century, but they have stood the test of time whereas the obedience sense is now obsolete.
interpolate: Interpolate comes from the past participle of Latin interpolare, "to polish up, to furbish, to vamp up; hence to falsify," from inter-, "between" + polire, "to polish."
cogent: Cogent derives from Latin cogere, "to drive together, to force," from co-, "with, together" + agere, "to drive."
sardonic: After Sardinia, a large island in the Mediterranean. Eating a Sardinian plant was believed to produce facial convulsions as if in a maniacal laughter.
grammatolatry: From Greek gramma (letter) + -latry (worship).
lingua franca: From Italian lingua franca (language of the Franks). The original lingua franca was Italian mixed with Spanish, French, Greek, Arabic, and Turkish, spoken on the eastern shores of the Mediterranean Sea in the Middle Ages. The name refers to the Arabic custom of calling all Western Europeans "Franks". Today English serves as the lingua franca of the world.
nocebo: "Nocent" has been in the English language as a word for "harmful" since the 15th century. It comes from Latin "nocēre," meaning "to harm." Latin "nocebo" is a close relative that means "I will be harmful" and that contrasts with "placebo," meaning "I shall please." People in medicine began using "placebo" for inert preparations prescribed solely for a patient's mental relief, and not for relieving a disorder, in the late 18th century. As doctors began to observe the effects of placebos, some noticed that the harmless preparations actually sometimes caused detrimental effects on the patient's health. English speakers began using the word "nocebo" for substances causing such adverse reactions in patients in 1961.
jog trot: The jog trot is a kind of careful, deliberate trot that is sometimes required at horse shows, among other things. "Jog" is thought to have come from an alteration of "shog," a verb meaning "to shake" or "to jolt" and used primarily in dialect. "Trot" has been part of English since the 14th century. The phrase "jog trot," which first appeared in print in 1796, developed a figurative sense as well; it can refer to a steady and usually monotonous routine, similar to the slow, regular pace of a horse at a jog trot. There is a suggestion with the generalized sense that the action is uniform and unhurried, and perhaps even a little dull.
linctus: From Latin lingere (to lick). Ultimately from the Indo-European root leigh- (lick) that is also the source of lichen (apparently from the way it licks its way around a surface), and lecher, but not lingerie (which is from the root lino: flax).
malediction: Malediction comes from Latin maledictio, from maledicere, "to speak ill, to abuse," from Latin male, "badly" + dicere, "to speak, to say."
restaurateur: "Restaurateur" and "restaurant" were borrowed directly from related French words, and both ultimately derive from the Latin word "restaurare" ("to restore"). "Restaurant" arrived in English in the second half of the 18th century. We acquired "restaurateur" approximately 30 years later. Of the two words, "restaurant" is significantly more common — a fact that may have influenced the development of the variant spelling "restauranteur" for "restaurateur." "Restauranteur" first appeared in the 1920s, and some people consider it to be an error. It is, however, a standard variant, albeit one that continues to be used less frequently than "restaurateur."
parapraxis: Parapraxis is a fancy word for the Freudian slip. It's derived from Greek para- (beside, beyond) + praxis (act).
sacrilegious: It may seem that "sacrilegious" should be spelled as "sacreligious," since the word sometimes describes an irreverent treatment of religious objects or places. However, "sacrilegious" comes to us from "sacrilege," which is ultimately derived from a combination of the Latin words "sacer" ("sacred") and "legere" ("to gather" or "to steal"). Its antecedent in Latin, "sacrilegus," meant "one who steals sacred things." There is no direct relation to "religious" (which is derived from the Latin word "religiosus," itself from "religio," meaning "supernatural constraint or religious practice"). The apparent resemblance between "sacrilegious" and "religious" is just a coincidence.
deter: The word "deter" is rooted in fear. It was borrowed into English around the mid-16th century from the Latin verb "deterrēre," which in turn was formed by combining "de-," meaning "from" or "away," with "terrēre," meaning "to frighten." "Terrēre" is also the source of "terror," "terrible," and even "terrific," which originally meant "very bad" or "frightful." These days, you may be deterred by something that frightens you or by something that simply causes you to think about the difficult or unpleasant consequences of continuing. The word can also mean "to inhibit," as in "painting to deter rust."
fescennine: After Fescennia, a town of ancient Etruria known for its ribald and scurrilous songs sung at festivals and weddings.
Callipygian: From Greek calli- (beautiful) + pyge (buttocks).
Atrabilious: From Latin atra bilis (black bile), translation of Greek melankholia.
forlorn: Forlorn comes from Old English forleosan, "to abandon," from for- + leosan, "to lose."
Boustophedon boo-struh-FEED-n, -FEE-don: From boustrophedon, literally ox-turning, referring to the movement of an ox while plowing a field, from bous (ox) and strophe (turning). It's the same strophe that shows up in catastrophe (literally, an overturning) and apostrophe (literally, turning away, referring to the omission of a letter).
fortitude: "Fortitude" comes from the Latin word "fortis," meaning "strong," and in English it has always been used primarily to describe strength of mind. For a time, the word was also used to mean "physical strength" — Shakespeare used that sense in The First Part of King Henry the Sixth: "Coward of France! How much he wrongs his fame / Despairing of his own arm's fortitude." But despite use by the Bard, that second sense languished and is now considered obsolete.
sentient: You may have guessed that "sentient" has something to do with the senses. The initial spelling "sent-" or "sens-" is often a giveaway for such a meaning. A "sentient" being is one who perceives and responds to sensations of whatever kind — sight, hearing, touch, taste, or smell. "Sentient" ultimately comes from the Latin verb "sentire," which means "to feel" and is related to the noun "sensus," meaning "feeling" or "sense." A few related English words are "sentiment" and "sentimental," which have to do with emotions, and "sensual," which relates to more physical "sensations."
mazy: Mazy is the adjective form of maze, which comes from Middle English mase, from masen, "to confuse, to daze," from Old English amasian, "to confound." It is related to amaze, which originally meant "to bewilder."
yeoman's service: From yeoman (servant or assistant), probably a blend of young + man, or from ga (region) + man.
smithereens: Probably from Irish smidirin, diminutive of smiodar (fragment).
Queen regnant: From Latin regnare (reign). Ultimately from the Indo-European root reg- (to move in a straight line, to lead or rule) that is also the source of regime, direct, rectangle, erect, rectum, alert, source, and surge.
defenestrate: Defenestrate is derived from Latin de-, "out of" + fenestra, "window." The noun form is defenestration.
Coprolite: From Greek kopro- (dung) + -lite (stone), from lithos (stone).
glutinous: Glutinous derives from Latin glutinosus, from gluten, glutin-, "glue."
croupier: From French, literally one who sits behind another on horseback, from croup (rump). The term arose because originally such a person stood behind a gambler to offer advice.
apprise: Apprise comes from French appris, past participle of apprendre, from Old French aprendre, "to learn," from Vulgar Latin apprendere, from Latin apprehendere, "to take hold of (by the mind)," from ad- + prehendere, "to lay hold of, to seize."
renascent: Renascent comes from Latin renascens, present participle of renasci, "to be born again," from re-, "again" + nasci, "to be born."
catholicon: Via Latin from Greek katholikos (general), from kata (according to, by) + holou (whole). Ultimately from the Indo-European root sol- (whole) that gave us words such as solid, salute, save, salvo, and soldier.
decimate: The connection between "decimate" and the number ten harks back to a brutal practice of the army of ancient Rome. A unit that was guilty of a severe crime (such as mutiny) was punished by selecting and executing one-tenth of its soldiers, thereby scaring the remaining nine-tenths into obedience. It's no surprise that the word for this practice came from Latin "decem," meaning "ten." From this root we also get our word "decimal" and the name of the month of December, originally the tenth month of the calendar before the second king of Rome decided to add January and February. In its extended uses "decimate" strayed from its "tenth" meaning and nowadays refers to the act of destroying or hurting something in great numbers.
orthoepy: Via Latin from Greek ortho- (correct) + epos (word), ultimately from the Indo-European root wekw- (to speak) that also gave us voice, vowel, vouch, vocation, evoke, revoke, advocate, and epic.
balbriggan: After Balbriggan, a town near Dublin in Ireland, where it was first made.
Iatrogenic: From iatro- (healer, medicine), from Greek iatros (healer) + English -genic (producing).
prink: Prink is probably an alteration of prank, from Middle English pranken, "to show off," perhaps from Middle Dutch pronken, "to adorn oneself," and from Middle Low German prunken (from prank, "display").
litotes: Even if you've never heard the word "litotes," chances are you've encountered this figure of speech. If you've ever approved of a job well done by exclaiming "Not bad!" or told someone that you are "not unhappy" when you are ecstatic, you've even used it yourself. In fact, you might say that it would be "no mean feat" to avoid this common feature of our language! And litotes isn't only common; it's also "simple" — etymologically speaking, that is. "Litotes" evolved from a Greek word meaning "simple," and perhaps ultimately from another Greek word meaning "linen cloth."
dilatory: Dilatory is from Latin dilatorius, from dilator, "a dilatory person, a loiterer," from dilatus, past participle of differre, "to delay, to put off," from dis-, "apart, in different directions" + ferre, "to carry."
claque: Claque comes from French, from claquer, "to clap," ultimately of imitative origin.
costive: Via French from Latin constipare (to cram together), from com- (together) + stipare (to pack or crowd).
Orthography: Via French and Latin from Greek ortho- (correct, right, straight) + -graphy (writing).
Popinjay: Via French and Spanish from Arabic babbaga (parrot). The last syllable changed to jay because some thought the word referred to that bird instead of a parrot.
waterloo: After Waterloo, a village in central Belgium where the Battle of Waterloo took place in 1815. That was Napoleon Bonaparte's last battle. He was decisively defeated by the British and Prussian forces and exiled to the island of Saint Helena.
euphuism: Nowadays, someone who uses euphuism might be accused of linguistic excess and affectation, but "euphuism" hasn't always had a negative connotation. When John Lyly employed this verbose form of rhetoric in his prose works Euphues: The Anatomy of Wit (1578) and Euphues and His England (1580), it was a style that appealed to many of his contemporaries. "Euphuism" comes from the name of the character Euphues, whom Lyly described as a "young gallante, of more wit then wealth, and yet of more wealth then wisdome." The name was probably inspired by a Greek word meaning "witty." The term "euphuism" came into being to refer to Lyly's (and other writers') style a dozen or so years after his works appeared.
choler: Choler is from Latin cholera, a bilious disease, from Greek kholera, from khole, bile.
mansuetude: "Mansuetude" was first used in English in the 14th century, and it derives from the Latin verb "mansuescere," which means "to tame." "Mansuescere" itself comes from the noun "manus" (meaning "hand") and the verb "suescere" ("to accustom" or "to become accustomed"). Unlike "manus," which has many English descendants (including "manner," "emancipate," and "manicure," among others), "suescere" has only a few English progeny. One of them is a word we featured in December — "desuetude" — which means "disuse" and comes to us by way of Latin "desuescere" ("to become unaccustomed"). Two others are "custom" and "accustom," which derive via Anglo-French from Latin "consuescere," meaning "to accustom."
catachresis: Here's a catchall word for all those mixed metaphors, malapropisms, and bushisms. It derives via Latin from Greek katakhresthai (to misuse).

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Number of cards 60