Word Of The Day

[Altobelli]

SUI GENERIS adjective (soo-I-ge-ne-ris)

adjective

1. Latin. of his, her, its, or their own kind; unique.

Quotes
It had nothing in common with other wigs. It was like its owner, perfectly sui generis.
--*Charles Lever,*Jack Hinton, the Guardsman, 1843

In an earlier case also involving a dog’s role in bringing about a search, United States v. Place, the Court described the “canine sniff” as “sui generis,” highlighting that the dog nose is a tool quite unlike any human investigative tools.
--*Alexandra Horowitz,*"What the Dog Knows," The New Yorker, February 23, 2013



Origin

Sui generis “of its own kind, unique” comes from the Latin reflexive adjective suus “(one’s) own” and the noun genus “birth, descent, origin.” The phrase is in the genitive case, singular number, neuter gender; the nominative plural of genus is genera, and both words are familiar in English from their use in taxonomic names. French developments from Latin genus, generis include gendre and genre, the immediate source of English gender and genre. The Latin pair genus, generis has the same source as Greek génos, génous (also dialect géneos) “race, descent.” Both the Latin pair and the Greek pair come from Proto-Indo-European genos, geneses (for Latin) / genesos (for Greek), from the root gen-. From the Greek root we have genesis, genetic, gene, etc. Greek genesis “origin, source, descent” is a learned borrowing in Latin and is correctly used for the name of first book of the Bible, but the Latin phrase sui genesis (instead of sui generis) means “origin of itself” and is nonsense. Sui generis entered English in the nth century.

[Altobelli]

WHIZZO adjective (hwiz-oh)

adjective

1. British Slang. absolutely first-rate; superb; excellent.
interjection

1. British Slang. (used as an exclamation of approval, wonder, or pleasure.)

Quotes

I don't even use a mobile phone. But Skype is, apparently, pretty whizzo and shrinks time and space and facilitates the kind of nourishing, touchy-feely stuff that keeps the modern, global family together.
--*Ian Whitwham,*"How I learned to love Skype," The Guardian, October 19, 2013

You're going to make a whizzo organist, Feely!
--*Alan Bradley,*Speaking from Among the Bones, 2013



Origin

Like many slang terms, the source or sources of whizzo are hard to trace precisely. The final -o is the common suffix used to form colloquial nouns and adjectives. The whizz part of whizzo may derive from whiz, a noun meaning “a person expert in a particular activity,” from the verb whiz “to make or move with a humming or rushing sound.” Just as plausibly, whizzo may be an alteration and shortening of the colloquial British usage of wizard “excellent,” used as an adjective and exclamation. Whizzo entered English in the early 20th century.

[The Bedlington Terrier]

Theresa Maybot is anything but phooking WHIZZO!

[Altobelli]

SUNDOG noun (suhn-dwag)

noun

1. a bright circular spot on a solar halo; parhelion.
2. a small or incomplete rainbow.

Quotes

Nature will not name itself. Granite doesn't self-identify as igneous. Light has no grammar. Language is always late for its subject. When I see a moon-bow or a sundog, I usually just say “Wow!” or “Hey!”
--*Robert Macfarlane,*"The word-hoard:Robert Macfarlane on rewilding our language of landscape," The Guardian, February 27, 2015

Menzel ... proposed that it was merely a sundog that Harris and the others were observing, and this was subsequently adopted as the official explanation.
--*Symposium on Unidentified Flying Objects: Hearings Before the Committee on Science and Astronautics U.S. House of Representatives Ninetieth Congress, Second Session, July 29, 1968



Origin

Sundog was first recorded in 1625–35. Its origin is uncertain.

[Altobelli]

CONFUSTRICATE verb (kuh-n-fuh-ti-keyt)

verb

1. Slang. to confuse or perplex; bewilder.

Quotes

Confusticate and bebother these dwarves!
--*J. R. R. Tolkien,*The Hobbit, 1937

To confusticate the apple, or to scrumplicate the pear, Discombobulate the cherry, make the grower tear his hair ...
--*"Bullying Poor 'Bully'," Punch, Volume 98, April 26, 1890



Origin

Confusticate is a pseudo-Latin coinage based on an alteration of the common English verb confuse. It originally was American slang and rarely used until J.R.R. Tolkien revived it in The Hobbit (1937). Most pseudo-Latin words, e.g., bloviate or omnium-gatherum, retain a whiff of the fraudulent, but transmogrify, invented in the 17th century, is now respectable. Confusticate entered English in the late 19th century.

[Altobelli]

ESTIVAL adjective (es-tuh-vul)

adjective

1. pertaining or appropriate to summer.

Quotes

Yet sometimes it is of such a tall growth as doth surpass the length of a lance, but that is only when it meeteth with a sweet, easy, warm, wet, and well-soaked soil ... and that it want not for rain enough about the season of the fishers' holidays and the estival solstice.
--*Francois Rabelais,*Gargantua and Pantagruel, Book III, translated by Thomas Urquhart, 1693

Water and ice go to extremes in estival New York. Water consumption in summer averages 1.6 billion gallons a day, as against 1.2 billion in winter ...
--*Richard F. Shepard,*"Despite the Heat Summer in the City Has Always Been An Outdoor Affair," New York Times, July 8, 1990



Origin

Estival ultimately comes from the Latin adjective aestivālis “summerlike, of summer.” Aestivālis is a derivation of the Latin noun aestās “the hot season, summer” and comes from the Proto-Indo-European root ai- “to burn,” the same source as the Latin noun aestus “boiling, waving, billowy motion, surge, tidal action, tide.” From aestus “tide” Latin forms the noun aestuārium “tidal channel,” whence English estuary, a long semantic journey from the heat of summer. Estival entered English in the 14th century.

[CaspertheClaret]

I haven't been following this thread but have we had:

fecund

ˈfɛk(ə)nd,ˈfiːk(ə)nd/Submit
adjective
producing or capable of producing an abundance of offspring or new growth; highly fertile.
"a lush and fecund garden"
producing many new ideas.
"her fecund imagination"
technical
capable of bearing children.




If not can we have it tomorrow?

[The Bedlington Terrier]

It was in a crossword puzzle recently and I nailed it!

[Altobelli]

APPLE-POLISH verb (ap-uh-l-pol-ish)

verb

1. Informal. to curry favor with someone, especially in an obsequious or flattering manner.
2. Informal. to curry favor with (someone).

Quotes

The man could apple-polish his way out of Folsom Prison.
--*Gwynne Forster,*When Twilight Comes, 2002

Benazir was less naughty, often siding with the nanny and abiding by her strict codes, soon becoming her favourite in the house. Her siblings, meanwhile, were less inclined to 'apple-polish' as the boys would say ...
--*Fatima Bhutto,*Songs of Blood and Sword, 2010



Origin

Apple-polish is an American colloquialism that prompts images of Hal Roach’s Our Gang (also The Little Rascals) comedies produced between 1922 and 1944, especially of the lovely Miss Crabtree. However, the agent noun apple-polisher appeared in print in 1918, before the Hal Roach series began. The verb apple-polish entered English in the late 1920s.

[Altobelli]

CACOEPY noun (kuh-koh-uh-pee)

noun

1. incorrect pronunciation or an instance of this; mispronunciation (opposed to orthoepy). Also, Older Spelling, cacoëpy.

Quotes

The Latin language itself ... has been poisoned by the noisomeness of the English cacoëpy and cacography.
--*Charles Kraitsir,*Glossology: Being a Treatise on the Nature of Language and on the Language of Nature, 1852

The American who will ask for ung bong romong in the streets of Paris may have to repeat his question an indefinite number of times; he who will call for unn bonn romann will "get there" in a canter, although his cacoepy differs only in degree from the other's.
--*"The French Nasal Sounds" American Notes and Queries, May 2, 1891



Origin

Cacoepy comes from Greek kakoépeia “mispronunciation, incorrect language,” made up of the adjective kakós “bad, evil, worthless, ugly” and the noun épos (also dialect wépos) “word, speech, song.” The adjective comes from baby talk or a nursery word widespread in Indo-European languages, kakka- “to defecate, poop, ****.” The root appears in Latin cacāre (Italian cacare, Spanish cagar), Slavic (Polish) kakać, German kacken, and English cuck(ing stool). The Greek noun épos (wépos) comes from the Proto-Indo-European root wekw-, wokw- “to speak,” source of Latin vox “voice,” whose stem vōc- forms the verb vōcāre “to call.” Cacoepy entered English in the 19th century.