Word Of The Day

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PHUB verb (fuhb)

verb
1. Slang. to ignore (a person or one's surroundings) when in a social situation by busying oneself with a phone or other mobile device: Hey, are you phubbing me?
2. Slang. to ignore a person or one's surroundings in this way.


Quotes

I found myself glancing at my phone in the middle of conversations ... conveniently forgetting how annoyed I felt when other people phubbed me.
--*Catherine Price,*How to Break Up with Your Phone, 2018


What we discovered was that when someone perceived that their partner phubbed them, this created conflict and led to lower levels of reported relationship satisfaction.
--*Jo Piazza,*How to Be Married, 2017



Origin

Phub was first recorded in 2010–14. It blends the words phone and snub.

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TZIMMES noun (tsim-is)

noun

1. fuss; uproar; hullabaloo: He made such a tzimmes over that mistake!
2. Also, tsimmes. Jewish Cookery. any of various sweetened combinations of vegetables, fruit, and sometimes meat, prepared as a casserole or stew.


Quotes

Don't make a tzimmes out of it. You gonna upset the children ...
--*Mary Doria Russell,*Epitaph, 2015


Why do you have to make such a tzimmes over the maids' stairs.
--*Péter Nádas,*Parallel Stories, translated by Imre Goldstein, 2011



Origin

Tzimmes comes from Yiddish tsimes and is related to Swabian German zimmes, zimbes “compote, stew” and Swiss German zimis “lunch.” The German noun is a compound word, originally a prepositional phrase, formed from Middle High German z, ze, an unstressed variant of zuo “at, to” (German zu) and the Middle High German noun imbiz, imbīz “snack, light meal” (German Imbiss). Imbiz is a derivative of Old High German enbīzan “to take nourishment,” which is related to English in and bite. Tzimmes entered English in the late 19th century.

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SERIOCOMIC adjective (seer-ee-oh-kom-ik)


adjective
1. partly serious and partly comic: a seriocomic play.


Quotes

Suddenly, here toward the year's end, when the new films are plunging toward the wire and the prospects of an Oscar-worthy long shot coming through get progressively more dim, there sweeps ahead a film that is not only one of the best of the year, but also one of the best seriocomic social satires we've had from Hollywood since Preston Sturges was making them.
--*Bosley Crowther,*"The Graduate," New York Times, December 22, 1967


Jonesy had seen representations of him on a hundred "weird mysteries" TV shows, on the front pages of a thousand tabloid newspapers (the kind that shouted their serio-comic horrors at you as you stood prisoner in the supermarket checkout lanes) ...
--*Stephen King,*Dreamcatcher, 2001



Origin

Seriocomic was first recorded in 1775-85. It links the words serious and comic with -o-, the typical ending of the first element of compounds of Greek origin, often used in English as a connective irrespective of etymology.

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PECULATE verb (pek-yuh-leyt)

verb
1. to steal or take dishonestly (money, especially public funds, or property entrusted to one's care); embezzle.

Quotes

The neglect of the Treasurer and the supineness of the President gave him the opportunity to peculate.
--*"A Defaulting Secretary," New York Times, October 14, 1884


Right off the top of his head, James Madison could think of a lot of good reasons to impeach a President. He ticked off this list: “He might lose his capacity after his appointment. He might pervert his administration into a scheme of peculation or oppression. He might betray his trust to foreign powers.” (To peculate is to embezzle.) It’s a very good list. Members of Congress might want to consult it.
--*Jill Lepore,*“How Impeachment Ended Up in the Constitution,” The New Yorker, May 18, 2017



Origin

Peculate derives from the Latin past participle and noun pecūlātus “embezzled, embezzlement,” derivative of the verb pecūlārī “to embezzle,” and itself a derivative of pecūlium “wealth in cattle, private property.” Latin suffers from an embarras de richesses of terms relating to misappropriation of public funds, embezzlement, and peculation. The Latin root noun behind all the corruption is pecu “cattle, large cattle,” the source of pecūnia “movable property, riches, wealth, money.” Latin pecu comes all but unchanged from Proto-Indo-European pek-, peku- “wealth, livestock, movable property.” Peku- becomes fehu- in Germanic, feoh “cattle, goods, money” in Old English, and fee in English. Peculate entered English in the 18th century.

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ERGOPHOBIA noun (ur-guh-foh-bee-uh)

noun

1. an abnormal fear of work; an aversion to work.


Quotes

He was examined by Dr. Wilson, who diagnosed the disease which had attacked him as ergophobia, (fear of work.)
--*"Bad Case of Ergophobia," New York Times, October 13, 1907


Doctor, I thank thee for the name / That dignifies my soul's complaint, / That silences the voice of blame, / That frees me from the toiler's taint, / That lets me loaf the livelong day-- / Thrice blessed ergophobia!
--*Ross Ellis,*"Ergophobia," Munsey's Magazine, Volume LV, June to September, 1915



Origin

Ergophobia, “abnormal fear of or aversion to work,” is formed from two Greek nouns commonly used to form words in English: érgon “work” and the combining form -phobía “fear.” Greek dialects preserve the original form wérgon, which comes directly from Proto-Indo-European wérgom, the source of Germanic werkam (English work). The combining form -phobía is a derivative of phóbos “flight, fear, panic fear,” from Proto-Indo-European bhógwos, a derivative of the root bhegw- “to run,” which appears in Slavic (Polish) biegać “to run.” Ergophobia entered English in the early 20th century.

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BENIGHTED adjective (bih-nahy-tid)

adjective

1. intellectually or morally ignorant; unenlightened: benighted ages of barbarism and superstition.
2. overtaken by darkness or night.


Quotes

Beyond that, the continued association of pregnancy with sickness perpetuates the benighted notion of childbearing as a threat to ordinary human experience when many would argue that it is the singular manifestation of it.
--*Ginia Bellafante,*"Paid Parental Leave, Except for Most Who Need It," New York Times, December 1, 2017


... it is difficult to have a reasonable conversation with someone who makes no secret about the fact that he thinks you are both benighted and stupid.
--*Bruce Franzese,*"The Conversation," The Atlantic, November 2017



Origin

Benighted originally meant, in the 16th century, “overtaken by darkness before one has reached home, lodging, or safety.” Its only modern sense, “intellectually or morally ignorant,” dates from the 17th century.

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MINERVA noun (mi-nur-vuh)

noun

1. a woman of great wisdom.
2. the ancient Roman goddess of wisdom and the arts, identified with the Greek goddess Athena.
3. a female given name.


Quotes

God, it seems like I'll always have a Minerva by my side being a better person than I am.
--*Julia Alvarez,*In the Time of the Butterflies, 1994


The notion of such a Minerva as this, whom I saw in public places now and then, surrounded by swarms of needy abbés and schoolmasters, who flattered her, frightened me for some time, and I had not the least desire to make her acquaintance.
--*William Makepeace Thackeray,*"The Luck of Barry Lyndon: A Romance of the Last Century," Fraser's Magazine for Town and Country, Volume XXX, July to December, 1844



Origin

The Roman goddess Minerva is so completely identified with the Greek goddess Athena that it is difficult to discern what is “native” to Minerva. Minerva (earlier Latin spelling Menerva) was a native Italian goddess of handicrafts (hence easily identified with Athena in that respect). The name Minerva (Menerva) may be of Indo-European origin, from the root men- “to think, bear in mind,” source of English mind, Latin meminī “I remember,” and Greek Méntōr, a proper name meaning “adviser.” The original Latin name will have been Meneswā “intelligent, wise (woman),” related to Sanskrit manasvin “wise” and Manasvinī, the name of the mother of the moon. Alternatively, Meneswā may mean “woman who measures (the phases of the moon),” from the Proto-Indo-European root mē- “to measure,” source of English meal (a Germanic word), as in piecemeal, measure (from Latin), and Greek metron "measure," the source of the English suffix -meter, among other words. Minerva as the name of the goddess entered English in the Old English period; the sense "wise woman" dates from the late 18th century.

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DEMONYM noun (dem-uh-nim)

noun

1. the name used for the people who live in a particular country, state, or other locality: Two demonyms for the residents of Michigan are Michigander and Michiganian.


Quotes

The word “Hoosier,” which today is the demonym used to describe people from the state of Indiana, is a mystery nearing its second century. It is one of the best-known irregular demonyms for American states, along with “Yankee,” referring to someone from New York (and sometimes expanded from that into the entire Northeast), and “Buckeye,” which refers to someone from Ohio.
--*Dan Nosowitz,*"The Unsolvable Mystery of the Word 'Hoosier'," Atlas Obscura, August 22, 2017


Shafik turns his thoughts back to the archaic demonym, Shawam, singular Shami, which is what the native Egyptians called people from a certain part of the Fertile Crescent.
--*Alain Farah,*"Life of the Father," Granta, 141: Canada, November 9, 2017



Origin

The noun demonym is clearly from Greek dêmos “people, common people, common soldiery (as opposed to officers), popular government, democracy, district, country, land.” The second part of the word comes from Greek dialect (Doric, Aeolic) ónyma, a variant of ónoma “name” (the Attic and Ionic dialectal form) and is very common in compounds like antonym and pseudonym. Demonym entered English in the late 20th century.

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KRUMMHOLZ noun (kroom-hohlts)

noun

1. a forest of stunted trees near the timber line on a mountain.


Quotes

A few miles away bare scree-covered slopes protruded from the gnarled krummholz, marking the trail's maximum height.
--*Annie Proulx,*"Testimony of the Donkey," Fine Just the Way It Is, 2008


I should point out that nowhere are the wabi and sabi palettes of time acting on nature more visible than in the krummholz--the "elfin timber," gnarled and twisted little trees at treeline that might be a thousand years old ...
--*Dan Simmons,*“Introduction to ‘Looking for Kelly Dahl,’” Worlds Enough & Time, 2002



Origin

The German noun Krummholz, literally “crooked wood,” means “a forest of stunted trees near the timber line; elfinwood.” The German adjective krumm “bent, crooked, warped, stooping, devious” is related to British dialectal words crump “bent, crooked” and crumpback (also crump-back) “hunchback.” The German noun Holz “wood” is related to English holt and Old Norse holt. The Germanic nouns derive from Proto-Germanic hulto-, from keld-, an extended form of the Proto-Indo-European root kel- “to cut, hit.” Keld- is the source of Greek kládos “twig, branch, shoot” (and the English taxonomic term clade), and Slavic (Polish) kłoda “log." Krummholz entered English in the early 20th century.

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BEHINDHAND adverb, adjective (bih-hahynd)


adverb, adjective

1. late; tardy.
2. behind in progress; backward: They were never behindhand in following artistic fads.
3. in debt or arrears.


Quotes

"Hum!" cried the old gentleman, consulting a watch he carried. "I think we are twenty minutes behindhand."
--*Horatio Alger,*Randy of the River, 1906


I was going to pop in to see if Miss Harner was O.K., but I was a bit behindhand after collecting some flowerpots and a bucket and that what had been blown into our hedge.
--*Miss Read,*Gossip from Thrush Green, 1981



Origin

The adverb behindhand is formed on the analogy of the much earlier beforehand, which dates from the 13th century. Behindhand is especially but not exclusively concerned with monetary transactions, but from early in its history had the sense “out of date, behind the times.” Behindhand entered English in the 16th century.