Word Of The Day

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MULTIVERSE noun (muhl-ti-vurs)

noun
1. a hypothetical collection of identical or diverse universes, including our own.


Quotes

Multiverse proponents advocate the idea that there may exist innumerable other universes, some of them with totally different physics and numbers of spatial dimensions; and that you, I and everything else may exist in countless copies.
--*Heinrich Päs,*"Quantum Monism Could Save the Soul of Physics," Scientific American, March 5, 2019


Ten days before he died, Stephen Hawking sent one more written insight out into the cosmos—a paper, co-written with physicist*Thomas Hertog*of the Catholic University of Leuven in Belgium,*tackling the problem of a multiverse.
--*Sarah Kaplan,*"One of Stephen Hawking's final scientific acts: Tackling the multiverse," Washington Post, May 3, 2018



Origin

Multiverse, a combination of the common prefix multi- and (uni)verse, nowadays means “a hypothetical collection of identical or diverse universes, ours included,” a sense first suggested in 1952 by the Austrian physicist Erwin Schrödinger (1887–1961). Multiverse, however, was coined by the American psychologist and philosopher William James (1842–1910). Multiverse to James was an alternative to or an opposite of universe and meant “the universe imagined as lacking order, unity, or a single ruling and guiding power.” James used multiverse in a lecture “Is Life Worth Living?” in 1895.

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ANTHOPHOBIA noun (an-thuh-foh-bee-uh)

noun
1. an abnormal fear of flowers.


Quotes

And if you dislike the task of summer gardening, you may even be a victim of anthophobia, the fear of flowers, although that's a rare malady indeed.
--*Hal Boyle,*"Some Phobias You Can Enjoy," Tallahassee Democrat,*Associated Press, May 23, 1969


Queen Elizabeth I is said to have been terrorized by roses, a subcategory of anthophobia, a generalized fear of flowers.
--*Marianne Szegedy-Maszak,*"Conquering Our Phobias: The Biological Underpinnings of Paralyzing Fears," U.S. News & World Report, December 6, 2004



Origin

Anthophobia, “an abnormal fear of flowers,” is surely one of the odder phobias, as opposed to acrophobia “an abnormal fear of heights” or arachnophobia “an abnormal fear of spiders” or—a good one!—chiroptophobia “an abnormal fear of bats (the flying mammal).” Anthophobia is composed of two Greek nouns: ánthos “flower” and the combining form -phobíā “fear.” Queen Elizabeth I of England (1533-1603) suffered from anthophobia, especially of a fear of roses, which has no technical name. Anthophobia entered English in the 19th century.

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PLASTICITY noun (pla-stis-i-tee)

noun
1. the capability of being molded, receiving shape, or being made to assume a desired form: the plasticity of social institutions.


Quotes

Studies reveal adolescence to be a period of heightened “plasticity” during which the brain is highly influenced by experience.
--*Laurence Steinberg,*"The Case for Delayed Adulthood," New York Times, September 19, 2014


Comic actors, like dramatic ones, have their comfortable niches, from Bill Murray's sardonic schlubbism to Jim Carrey's manic plasticity.
--*Christopher Orr,*"The Movie Review: 'Along Came Polly'," The Atlantic, June 8, 2004



Origin

Plasticity is made up of plastic and the noun suffix -ity. Plastic comes via Latin plasticus “for molding or modeling," from Greek plastikós with the same meanings. Plastikós is a derivative of the verb plássein, pláttein “to mold, form." Other derivatives from the Greek include plaster, from Medieval Latin plastrum “plaster (both medical and building senses),” ultimately an alteration of Greek émplaston “molded on, daubed”; plastid “an organelle of plant cells”; plastique (as in the explosive); and plastron "a piece of armor; part of a turtle's shell.” Plasticity entered English in the 18th century.

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VADE MECUM noun (vey-dee-mee-kuhm)

noun
1. something a person carries about for frequent or regular use.


Quotes

... the complete poem, though subjected to repeated prosecutions, made its way in pirated editions and became a vade mecum among the radicals.
--*Samuel C. Chew and Richard D. Altick,*A Literary History of England, 2nd ed., Vol. 4,*The Nine****th Century and After,*1967


The travel guides we consult to find a trattoria near Piazza Navova may one day seem as foreign—and as revealing of an era marked by overwhelming plenty—as these fictional vade mecums.
--*Richard B. Woodward,*"Armchair Traveler," New York Times, September 24, 2008



Origin

A vade mecum in English is something, especially a book or manual, that a person carries about for consulting. The English phrase comes from the Latin phrase vāde mēcum “go with me.” The first word, vāde, is the second person singular imperative of vādere “to go, advance, proceed,” from the same Proto-Indo-European root wadh- “to go” as the Germanic (English) wade. Mēcum ”with me,” and its kindred forms tēcum “with thee,” nōbiscum “with us,” and vōbiscum “with you,” are relics or fossils in Latin of an earlier stage in the language when “prepositions” (elements that precede the words governed) were “postpositions” (the elements followed the words governed). During imperial times, the anomalous mēcum and tēcum were strengthened, reinforced by the “regular” preposition cum, yielding cum mēcum and cum tēcum, which persist in modern Spanish as conmigo and contigo. Vade mecum entered English in the 17th century.

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FUNEMPLOYED adjective (fuhn-em-ploid)

adjective
1. without a paid job but enjoying the free time: Ask one of your funemployed friends to come along with you.

noun
1. funemployed people collectively (usually preceded by the): Most of the funemployed are under 30.


Quotes

So far, at least, he seems like an excellent match for this slightly wilder, funemployed new version of Jess.
--*Izzy Grinspan,*"New Girl Recap: Off the Grid," Vulture, September 26, 2012


Buoyed by severance, savings, unemployment checks or their parents, the funemployed do not spend their days poring over job listings.
--*Kimi Yoshino,*"For the 'funemployed,' unemployment is welcome,"*Los Angeles Times,*June 4, 2009



Origin

Funemployed, an informal combination of fun and (un)employed, is a neologism dating to 1995.

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POLYSEMY noun (pol-ee-see-mee)

noun
1. a condition in which a single word, phrase, or concept has more than one meaning or connotation.


Quotes

Twenty-three alternate meanings for it are listed in English alone—it is, the editors say, a model of "polysemy," packing multiple meanings into a single sign ... .
--*Adam Gopnik,*"Word Magic," The New Yorker, May 26, 2014


This rich polysemy of language is the basis for William Empson's first type of poetic ambiguity: "when a detail is effective in several ways at once."
--*C. Namwali Serpell,*Seven Modes of Uncertainty, 2014



Origin

Fast can mean "moving quickly" or "firmly fixed." The word shows polysemy, which ultimately derives from Greek*polýsēmos "having many meanings."*Polýsēmos joins*polýs "many, much," and*sêma "sign, mark, token."*Polýs yields the combining form*poly-, seen in many English words, such as polygon "many angles" or polytheism "many gods." Sêma produces another term used, like polysemy, in linguistics: semantics "the study of meaning." In linguistics, polysemy and semantics were modeled on French polysémie and*sémantique. These words were formed in the late 19th century by French linguist Michel Bréal (1832–1915)—a man perhaps better remembered for inspiring the modern Olympic marathon in 1896. Polysemy entered English in the 1920s.

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FLIMFLAM noun (flim-flam)

noun
1. a trick or deception, especially a swindle or confidence game involving skillful persuasion or clever manipulation of the victim.

verb
1. to trick, deceive, swindle, or cheat: A fortuneteller flimflammed her out of her savings.


Quotes

Slamming my fist on my writing desk I cursed the day a year before that I'd allowed by friend Eddy Dorobek to flimflam me into buying a used laptop from him and giving up my dead father's rickety old Underwood portable.
--*Dan Fante,**86'd, 2009


Col. Leonard was there and he knows how they tried to flimflam us.
--*Charlie Mann,*"Evening Session: January 21, 1913," Annual Report of the Nebraska State Board of Agriculture,*1913



Origin

Flimflam*“to trick, deceive, swindle,” shows the same common vowel alteration in a reduplicated word as in mish-mash or pitter-patter. Flimflam may possibly be based on a Scandinavian word, e.g., Old Norse flim “a lampoon, mockery.” Flimflam entered English in the 16th century as a noun meaning “idle talk, nonsense; a cheap deception.” The verb sense “to cheat, swindle,” originally an Americanism, arose in the late 19th century.

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ALACRITY noun (uh-lak-ri-tee)

noun
1. cheerful readiness, promptness, or willingness: We accepted the invitation with alacrity.


Quotes

Mrs Tulliver was an amiable fish of this kind, and, after running her head against the same resisting medium for four**** years, would go at it again to-day with undulled alacrity.
--*George Eliot,*The Mill on the Floss, 1860


The president has grumbled for months about what he views as Nielsen’s*lackluster performance on immigration enforcement and is believed to be looking for a replacement who will implement his policy ideas with more alacrity.
--*Nick Miroff, Josh Dawsey,*and*Philip Rucker,*"Trump is preparing to remove Kirstjen Nielsen as Homeland Security secretary, aides say," Washington Post, November 12, 2018



Origin

Alacrity comes from Middle French alacrite from Latin alacritāt-, the stem of alacritās “liveliness, zeal, enthusiasm.” Alacritās is a derivative noun of the adjective alacer “nimble, brisk, enthusiastic, keen.” Latin alacer develops into Italian allegro and Spanish alegre “cheerful, happy.” Alacrity entered English in the 15th century.

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UNICORN noun (yoo-ni-kawrn)

noun
1. a person or thing that is rare and highly valued, or is a hypothetical ideal.


Quotes

Are such politically star-crossed lovers as Mary Matalin and James Carville a relationship unicorn?
--*Jen Doll,*"The Trouble with Interpolitical Dating Is Just the Trouble with Dating," The Atlantic (Wire), October 31, 2012


Big N.B.A. trades are always followed by a scramble to label players and teams as winners and losers, but every so often a unicorn of a deal comes together, and everyone involved seems to benefit.
--*Benjamin Hoffman,*"In the Carmelo Anthony Trade, Everyone Wins," New York Times,*July 19, 2018



Origin

Unicorn comes from Old French unicorne, from the Latin adjective ūnicornis “one-horned,” which is used as a noun possibly referring to the rhinoceros in the Vulgate, the Latin version of the Bible as edited or translated by St. Jerome (c347–420). Ūnicornis is a loan translation from the Greek noun and adjective monókerōs “single-horned” (referring to a wild ox or a unicorn), a word that occurs in the book of Psalms in the Septuagint (the ancient Greek version of the Hebrew Scriptures). Ūnicornis is a compound of ūni-, the stem of ūnus “one,” and cornū “horn” and the adjective suffix -is. Unicorn entered English in the 13th century.

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TOOTLE verb (toot-l)

verb
1. to move or proceed in a leisurely way.

noun
1. the sound made by tooting on a flute or the like.


Quotes

Dash responded with the message “Yay!” and a winsome shimmy, then tootled off at one and a half miles an hour—maybe in search of someone’s job.
--*Patricia Marx,*"Learning to Love Robots," The New Yorker, November 26, 2018


Behind them, the band Kiss tootled down the street on a black float, in its trademark makeup.
--*Sarah Maslin Nir,*"At Macy's Parade, Band, Balloons and, This Thanksgiving, Protesters," New York Times,*November 27, 2014



Origin

Tootle, an English frequentative verb from the verb toot, means “to keep tooting.” Frequentative in grammar and linguistics means “pertaining to a verb that expresses repetition of an action.” In the Slavic languages, e.g., Polish and Russian, frequentative verbs are very common, very complex, and very vexing for the learner. Latin has cantāre “to keep singing,” the source of chant, a frequentative of canere, the “plain” verb meaning “to sing”; and visitāre “to keep seeing, call upon, visit,” a frequentative of vidēre “to see.” Frequentative verbs are no longer productive in English, which uses only -er and -le as frequentative suffixes, as in patter from pat, putter from putt, crackle from crack, and tootle from toot. Tootle entered English in the 19th century.