Word Of The Day

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VIVIFY verb (viv-uh-fahy)

verb
1. to enliven; brighten; sharpen.
2. to give life to; animate; quicken.


Quotes

... he enlarged his sphere of action from the cold practice of law, into those vast social improvements which law, rightly regarded, should lead, and vivify, and create.
--*Edward Bulwer-Lytton,*Lucretia, 1846


Faber vivifies the atmosphere and environment of the fictional planet, from its marked humidity to its insect life, with fascinating specificity.
--*Nicole Lamy,*"Books for Left-Brained Readers," New York Times, October 2, 2018



Origin

The English verb vivify comes from Old French vivifier, from Late Latin vīvificāre “to make alive, restore to life, quicken.” Vīvificāre breaks down easily to vīvus “alive,” from vīv(ere) “to live,” from a very widespread Proto-Indo-European root with many variants: gwei-, gwī-, gwi-, gwiyō- “live” (gw- usually becomes v- in Latin). The Proto-Indo-European forms gwīwos and gwiwos “alive, life” become vīvus in Latin, bivus in Oscan (an Italic language spoken in southern Italy), bíos in Greek (from bíwos, from gwiwos). The Proto-Indo-European adjective gwigwos become kwikwaz in Germanic and ultimately English quick (in the archaic sense "alive," as in the phrase “the quick and the dead”). The suffix -fy comes from Middle English -fi(en), from Old French -fier, from Latin -ficāre, a combining form for verbs of doing or making, from the adjective suffix -ficus, from the verb facere “to do, make,” from the very complicated Proto-Indo-European root dhē-, dho- (and many other variants) “put, place,” the same source for English do. Vivify entered English in the 16th century.

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GRINCH noun (grinch)

noun
1. a person or thing that spoils or dampens the pleasure of others.


Quotes

I'd prefer not to be a grinch, but it’s always been beyond me why people like to argue about literary prizes.
--*Willing Davidson,*"Pullet Surprise," The New Yorker, April 20, 2009


Every family has a grinch: the person who wants to sleep in instead of opening presents, refuses to sing Christmas carols, or eats a Twix instead of plum pudding.
--*Sally Holmes,*"Anna Wintour Is the Grinch Who Stole the Christmas Tree," The Cut, December 26, 2013



Origin

The Grinch was the misanthropic central character in the children’s book How the Grinch Stole Christmas (1957) by “Dr. Seuss” (Theodor Seuss Geisel). The book was made into a TV special in 1966 and a feature film in 2000.

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KALEIDOSCOPIC adjective (kuh-lahy-duh-skop-ik)

adjective
1. continually shifting from one set of relations to another; rapidly changing: the kaleidoscopic events of the past year.
2. changing form, pattern, color, etc., in a manner suggesting a kaleidoscope.
3. of, relating to, or created by a kaleidoscope.


Quotes

The natural progress of her life, however, is fragmented in Hong’s kaleidoscopic fusion of reality and fantasy.
--*Richard Brody,*"Idiosyncratic Romance at the New York Film Festival," The New Yorker, October 2, 2017


Things had happened, in the last few hours, with a kaleidoscopic rapidity--the whirl of events had left her mind in a dazed condition.
--*Margaret E. Sangster,*The Island of Faith, 1921



Origin

Kaleidoscopic comes from Greek kalós “beautiful,” eîdos “shape,” and -scope, a combining form meaning “instrument for viewing.” The suffix -ic is used to form adjective from other parts of speech in Greek and Latin loanwords in English. Kaleidoscopic entered English in the 1840s.

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JOYANCE noun (joi-uhns)

noun
1. Archaic. joyous feeling; gladness.


Quotes

The rooms rang with silvery voices of women and delightful laughter, while the fiddles went merrily, their melodies chiming sweetly with the joyance of his mood.
--*Booth Tarkington,*Monsieur Beaucaire, 1900


... overhead the soaring skylark sang, as it were, to express the joyance of the day.
--*Gilbert Parker,*A Ladder of Swords, 1904



Origin

Joyance “gladness, rejoicing,” a compound of the verb joy “to feel glad, rejoice” and the suffix -ance, used to form nouns from verbs, was coined by Edmund Spenser (c1552-99) in his Faerie Queene (1590). Ben Jonson (c1573-1637) and Samuel Johnson (1709-84) were not great fans of Edmund Spenser’s contrived, artificial diction, and joyance may be one of the reasons why. The word was rare until two of the Lake Poets, Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834) and Robert Southey (1774-1843), resuscitated it in the late 18th century.

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GEWGAW noun (gyoo-gaw)

noun
1. something gaudy and useless; trinket; bauble.


Quotes

The Star was proving particularly awkward ... it was refusing to look like the resplendent gewgaw it was.
--*Michael Innes,*Honeybath's Haven, 1977


If nothing's missing, if every handkerchief, knick-knack, piece of cut glass, every gewgaw is accounted for, we heave a great sigh of relief.
--*Louis-Ferdinand Céline,*Death on the Installment Plan, translated by Ralph Manheim, 1966



Origin

Gewgaw derives from Middle English giuegaue. It is a gradational compound of uncertain origin, perhaps akin to the Middle French and French term gogo, as in the adverb à gogo meaning “as much as you like; to your heart's content; galore.” It’s been used in English since the late 12th century or the early 13th century.

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HIBERNAL adjective (hahy-bur-nl)

adjective
1. of or relating to winter; wintry.


Quotes

The sky was in its grey wintry mood where there is no blue break in the clouds to be expected, no bright spell to hope for, nothing for it but to accept the hibernal darkness the way you accept love or death.
--*Jean Rouaud,*The World More or Less, translated by Barbara Wright, 1998


Here's where to engage in sledding, animal tracking, tree tapping, cross-country skiing, and other hibernal pursuits without ever leaving town.
--*"Out in the Cold," New York, January 12, 1981



Origin

Hibernal “wintry, appearing in winter” and also “pertaining to the winter of life” comes straight from the Late Latin adjective hībernālis “wintry,” first appearing in the Vulgate (the Latin version of the Bible as edited or translated by St. Jerome). Hībernālis comes from Latin hībernus, which comes from a hypothetical Proto-Indo-European adjective gheimrinos, source also of Greek cheimerinós “in winter, winter’s,” and Slavic (Polish) zimny “cold.” Gheimrinos is formed from the Proto-Indo-European root ghei-, ghi- “snow, winter.” The form ghimo- appears in the Sanskrit noun himá- “cold, frost, snow,” familiar to us in the Himālaya Mountains, “Snow’s abode.” Hibernal entered English in the 17th century.

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TURTLEDOVE noun (tur-tl-duhv)

noun
1. a sweetheart or beloved mate.
2. any of several small to medium-sized Old World doves of the genus Streptopelia, especially S. turtur, of Europe, having a long, graduated tail: noted for its soft, cooing call.
3. mourning dove.


Quotes

You look anything but miserable, my turtledove. In fact, I never saw you look so well.
--*E. F. Harkins,*The Schemers, 1903


A whole new world was mine the day ... I met my turtledove ... for since we've been together ... my heart has been in love.
--*Ben Burroughs,*"Since We Met," Gettysburg Times, February 2, 1962



Origin

The turtle in turtledove has nothing to do with the aquatic and terrestrial reptile whose trunk is enclosed in a shell. The ultimate derivation of the reptilian turtle is Greek Tartaroûchos “controlling Tartarus, holding the nether world”; the word turtle entered English in the 17th century. Turtledove is a compound of Old English turtla, from Latin turtur “turtledove,” imitating the call of the bird. Dove comes from Old English dufe, dūfe and is related to the verb dive. Similar forms are found in other Germanic languages. Turtledove entered English in the 14th century.

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STODGE verb (stoj)

verb
1. to stuff full, especially with food or drink; gorge.
2. to trudge: to stodge along through the mire.

noun
1. food that is particularly filling.


Quotes

A "City man," on the other hand ... stodges his stomach with rich food three times a day ...
--*T. Clifford Allbutt,*"Nervous Diseases and Modern Life," Contemporary Review, February 1895


... as he cuts, bolts, and gulps, smacks, sniffs, and stodges, his eyes examine, his eyes observe, the ever-diminishing remnant upon the plate ...
--*Alfred Döblin,*Berlin Alexanderplatz, translated by Eugene Jolas, 1931



Origin

The adjective stodgy “thick, heavy, dull (of food, clothes, books, people)” is fairly common, but not so its source, the verb stodge “to stuff full, gorge; trudge along.” Stodgy appeared in the 19th century and applied to glutinous mud and roads; a quarter of a century later (in the 1850s), stodgy referred to heavy foods like porridge or potatoes; in the 1870s stodgy meant “dull, boring (of people, one’s own life).” The etymology of stodge is unknown; it entered English in the 17th century.

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NOEL noun (noh-el)

noun
1. Christmas.
2. (lowercase) a Christmas song or carol.
3. a male given name.


Quotes

... be sure to wish Tops a joyous Noel.
--*Ron Goulart,*"A Visit from St. Nicholas," 1993


... the special season for such innocent gaiety is the Christmastide when they celebrate Noël with a joyous fervour not to be outdone elsewhere.
--*J. Macdonald Oxley,*"Christmas Games in French Canada," The Canadian Magazine, November 1901 to April 1902



Origin

Noel has been in English since the 13th century as a forename and family name (e.g., Nuwel, Nuuel) for those born or baptized on Christmas or during the Christmas season. In the late 14th century, Nowel is used as an exclamation of joy in The Canterbury Tales (this usage remains only in Christmas carols). In the late-14th century alliterative poem Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Nowel meant “Christmas day, the feast of Christmas, Christmastide.” Middle English shows several spellings, e.g., Newel, Nouel, Nowelle, Nowel, all derived from Anglo-French, Middle French, and Old French forms (Nowel, Nowelle, Nouel, Noel), Noël in French. The spellings with o (e.g., Noel) are a variant of spellings with a (e.g., Nael) that began in the 12th century. Nael is a regular French development from Latin nātālis (in full, diēs nātālis “birthday”).

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MULLIGRUBS noun (muhl-i-gruhbz)

noun
1. Southern U.S. ill temper; grumpiness.


Quotes

Ma has a case of the mulligrubs here lately and some of the kinfolks figure it might be caused by reading the papers too much.
--*Bob Kyle,*"Fiddlin' Around," The Tuscaloosa News June 1, 1983


I think when it comes I will enjoy it. It is just the coming that fills me with the mulligrubs.
--*Winston Graham,*The Twisted Sword, 1990



Origin

The extravagant spelling variants of mulligrubs, e.g., mulligrums, mouldy-grubs, merlygrubs, muddigrubs, mullygrumps, murdiegrups,… at least show very plainly that mulligrubs has no sound etymology. Mulligrums “low spirits, bad temper, bad mood” first appears at the end of the 16th century. (Some scholars suggest a relationship between mulligrums and the slightly earlier noun megrims “melancholy, low spirits.”) A quarter of a century later, about 1625, mulligrubs meant “stomachache, diarrhea” and a few years later “ill-tempered or surly person.”