Word Of The Day

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KYOODLE verb (kahy-ood-l)

verb
1. to bark or yelp noisily or foolishly; yap.


Quotes

No living thing moved upon it, not even a medicine wolf to kyoodle to the invisible moon.
--*Richard Sale,*The White Buffalo, 1975


But the dogs waved their tails happily and sought out a rabbit and went kyoodling after it.
--*John Steinbeck,*Tortilla Flat, 1935



Origin

Kyoodle began as and still may be an Americanism. The word has no distinguished etymology (except for the vague label Imitative), which exactly fits the verb and also one of its noun meanings: mutt, noisy dog. Some distinguished American authors have used the word, however, including John Steinbeck, John O’Hara, and Sinclair Lewis. Kyoodle entered English in the late 19th century.

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SQUAMOUS adjective (skwey-muhs)

adjective
1. covered with or formed of squamae or scales.
2. scalelike.


Quotes

The back was piebald with yellow and black, and dimly suggested the squamous covering of certain snakes.
--*H. P. Lovecraft,*"The Dunwich Horror," Weird Tales, April 1929


They speak no known tongue and are said to sacrifice sailors to their squamous, fish-headed gods, likenesses of whom rise from their stony shores, visible only when the tide recedes.
--*George R. R. Martin, Elio M. García, Jr., and Linda Antonsson,*The World of Ice and Fire, 2014



Origin

The adjective squamous is a direct borrowing of Latin squāmōsus “covered with scales, scaly”, a derivative of the noun squāma “scale (on a fish or reptile), metal plate used in making armor.” The ultimate etymology of squāma is unclear, but it is related to squālēre “to be covered or crusted in scales or dirt,” and the derivatives of squālēre include squālidus “having a rough surface” and squālor “roughness, dirtiness, filth.” Squamous entered English in the 16th century.

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MENTOR noun (men-tor)


Definition

1 : a trusted counselor or guide

2 : tutor, coach


Did You Know?

We acquired mentor from the literature of ancient Greece. In Homer's epic The Odyssey, Odysseus was away from home fighting and journeying for 20 years. During that time, Telemachus, the son he left as a babe in arms, grew up under the supervision of Mentor, an old and trusted friend. When the goddess Athena decided it was time to complete the education of young Telemachus, she visited him disguised as Mentor and they set out together to learn about his father. Today, we use the word mentor for anyone who is a positive, guiding influence in another (usually younger) person's life.

Examples

Graduates of the program sometimes go on to become mentors to those making their way through the rigorous process of earning their certification.

"If you can find a mentor who is experienced in your field, they can provide you with insights that you may not get anywhere else. Think of them as kind of being a walking, talking, unofficial guidebook. They know the unspoken truths." — Abdullahi Muhammed, Forbes.com, 30 June 2018

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SCRY verb (skrahy)

verb
1. to use divination to discover hidden knowledge or future events, especially by means of a crystal ball.


Quotes

Merlin could scry in any clear or shiny surface. Even now he had a basin of water ready at this elbow for watching his boy king.
--*Phyllis Ann Karr,*"Merlin's Dark Mirror," The Merlin Chronicles, 1995


And my lord had a great mirror where he wanted me to scry--to see the future.
--*Philippa Gregory,*The Lady of the Rivers, 2011



Origin

Aphesis is the loss of an unstressed vowel or syllable from the beginning of a word, as descry becoming scry. The adjective formed from aphesis is aphetic. Descry means "to see something unclear or distant by looking carefully"; scry has a narrower meaning, “to use divination to learn hidden events or the future, especially by gazing into a crystal ball or water." Scry was obsolete by the 16th century, but it was revived in the 19th century by Andrew Lang (1844–1912), the Scottish poet, novelist, literary critic, anthropologist, and collector of folk and fairy tales.

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PLAGE noun (plahzh)

noun
1. a sandy bathing beach at a seashore resort.
2. Astronomy. a luminous area in the sun's chromosphere that appears in the vicinity of a sunspot.


Quotes

The place and the people were all a picture together, a picture that, when they went down to the wide sands, shimmered in a thousand tints, with the pretty organisation of the plage, with the gaiety of spectators and bathers, with that of the language and the weather, and above all with that of our young lady's unprecedented situation.
--*Henry James,*What Maisie Knew, 1897


Sore and breathless, I sat down on one of the benches along the plage.
--*Janice Law,*The Prisoner of the Riviera, 2013



Origin

English plage keeps its French pronunciation (more or less), which shows that plage is still not naturalized. French plage is a borrowing of Italian piaggia, which comes from Late Latin plagia “shore, coast.” Latin plagia is a feminine singular noun, a direct borrowing of Greek plágia, a neuter plural noun meaning “sides (of a mountain), flanks (of an army),” from the adjective plágios “oblique, sloping, sideways.” The Latin and Italian nouns refer particularly to Magna Graecia (those areas of southern Italy and Sicily that were colonized by the Greeks from the 8th to the 4th century b.c.), where there were many seacoast resort towns (with beaches). Plage entered English in the 19th century.

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CLADDAGH noun (klah-duh)

noun
1. a ring in the form of two hands clasping a crowned heart, given in friendship or love.


Quotes

One of the rings was becoming visible thanks to the bright light. "Are those hands?" "It's a claddagh."
--*C. J. Lyons,*Devil Smoke, 2016


Taking note of the thick band of sterling silver, I saw alternating squares of intricately engraved pictures: one was a Scottish thistle, one a Celtic knot, one a raven and the last I recognized because of my studies: a Claddagh: two hands clasping a heart together.
--*Sharon Ricklin Jones,*Ravenswynd Legends, 2013



Origin

The claddagh ring is Irish in name and origin. Claddagh in Irish means “shore” and is also the name of a fishing village on the western edge of Galway City, on the west coast of Ireland. The rings, with the design of two hands (friendship) clasping a heart (love), surmounted by a crown (loyalty), symbolized betrothal or marriage and were used at least as early as 1700. Claddagh entered English in the 19th century.

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NEPENTHE noun (ni-pen-thee)

noun
1. anything inducing a pleasurable sensation of forgetfulness, especially of sorrow or trouble.
2. a drug or drink, or the plant yielding it, mentioned by ancient writers as having the power to bring forgetfulness of sorrow or trouble.


Quotes

There must have been in him a remarkable capacity for forgetfulness; he might seem to have drunk every morning a nepenthe that drowned in oblivion all his yesterdays.
--*Walter Noble Burns,*The Saga of Billy the Kid, 1925


Of course, he was feverish and in great pain, despite the draughts of nepenthe he was given ...
--*Steven Saylor,*The House of Vestals, 1992



Origin

In Greek and English nepenthe and pathos are opposites. Greek nēpenthḗs is an adjective meaning “banishing pain, without sorrow.” Nēpenthḗs breaks down to the (unusual) negative prefix nē- (ultimately from the same Proto-Indo-European source as English un-), the stem penth- of the noun pénthos “pain,” and the adjective suffix -ḗs, -és. The Greek nouns pénthos and páthos “sensation, suffering” are derivatives of the complicated verb páschein, all three words showing variants of the Greek root penth-, ponth-, path- “to suffer, experience.” Nepenthe entered English in the 16th century.

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CYCLOPEAN adjective (sahy-kluh-pee-uhn)

adjective
1. gigantic; vast.
2. (initial capital letter) of or characteristic of the Cyclops.
3. Architecture, Building Trades. formed with or containing large, undressed stones fitted closely together without the use of mortar: a cyclopean wall.


Quotes

... large ships’ vents hang from the two-story-high ceiling, like Cyclopean worms poking their heads in to check out the space.
--*Colin Stokes,*"The Ship," The New Yorker, May 16, 2016


And ahead, the great cyclopean edifice reared like a giant's curse against the darkness: too dense a black, too severe.
--*Storm Constantine,*The Way of Light, 2002



Origin

English cyclopean comes from the Latin adjective Cyclōpēus, a borrowing of Greek Kyklṓpeios, a derivative of the common noun, proper noun, and name Kýklōps, which the Greeks interpreted to mean “round eye” (a compound of kýklos “wheel” and ōps “eye, face”). The most famous Cyclops is Polyphemus, a crude, solitary shepherd living on an island whom Odysseus blinded in Homer’s Odyssey. Hesiod (ca. 8th century b.c.) in his Theogony names three Cyclopes; they are craftsmen who make Zeus’s thunderbolts, and whom the Greeks often credited with building the walls of ancient Mycenae, Tiryns, Argos, and the acropolis of Athens, all constructed with massive limestone blocks roughly fitted together without mortar. Cyclopean entered English in the 17th century.

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LOCAVORE noun (loh-kuh-vawr)

noun
1. a person who makes an effort to eat food that is grown, raised, or produced locally, usually within 100 miles of home.


Quotes

The pomegranates, Boston lettuce, and tomatoes came from out of state--it was hard to be a complete locavore in New England during the winter.
--*Steven Raichlen,*Island Apart, 2012


The locavore movement aims to capture that flavor difference and promote sustainable, community-based agriculture by favoring "low-mileage" foods over ones that have traveled long distances to arrive at your plate.
--*Christie Aschwanden,*"The Locavore," Runner's World, October 2008



Origin

Locavore was coined in 2005 by Jessica Prentice (born 1968), an American chef and author, and a co-founder of Three Stone Hearth, a community-supported kitchen in Berkeley, California. Locavore is a compound of English local, from Latin locālis “pertaining to a place” (from locus "place") and Latin vorāre “to swallow ravenously,” which also appears in devour “to swallow down, gulp down,” carnivore “meat eater,” and herbivore “grass eater.”

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CABOSHED adjective (kub-bosht)

adjective
1. Heraldry. (of an animal, as a deer) shown facing forward without a neck: a stag's head caboshed.


Quotes

... an heraldic shield featuring a lion's head caboshed, with medusa hair, a single bulging eye, a beard, and tusks ...
--*John Clute,*Appleseed, 2001


A fanciful menagerie flourished on the banners: the caboshed boar of Janos of Hungary, the naiant dolphin of a Sicilian Norman, the salient-countersalient white stags of Conrad's men, and everywhere the Templars' Pegasus.
--*Chelsea Quinn Yarbro,*Crusader's Torch, 1988



Origin

Caboshed, also spelled caboched and cabossed is a technical term in heraldry referring to a beast decapitated behind its horns. The -ed shows that the variant spellings are all past participles of the very rare and obsolete verb cabochen, cabachen “to behead (a deer or other beast) right behind its horns.” The English verb comes from the French verb cabocher (past participle caboché), a derivative of caboche (Old French caboce), a pejorative northern French dialect (Norman, Picard) word meaning “head” (literally “cabbage”). Caboche may be a development of Latin caput “head.” Caboshed entered English in the 16th century.