Word Of The Day

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DEONTOLOGY noun (dee-on-tol-uh-jee)

noun
1. ethics, especially that branch dealing with duty, moral obligation, and right action.


Quotes

In deontology, the ethical theory whose most famous exponent was perhaps the German philosopher Immanuel Kant, I can be a good person by applying my reason to the discovery of moral behavior.
--*Armond Boudreaux and Corey Latta,*"The Dark Knight Returns: Why No Single Principle Is Sufficient," Titans: How Superheroes Can Help Us Make Sense of a Polarized World, 2017


How do we decide what is right? Philosophers had the question to themselves for centuries. Utilitarianism versus deontology. John Stuart Mill against Kant in the ultimate cage match. And after three centures without a resoluion from the philosophers, neuroscientists had begun eyeing the dilemma ...
--*Liam Durcan,*García's Heart, 2007



Origin

Deontology, the study of moral obligation, derives from Greek déon (stem déont-), a neuter participle used as a noun, meaning “what is binding, necessary, right,” a derivative of the verb déein, deîn “to bind, tie, fetter.” The combining form -logy “science” is completely naturalized in English. Deontology was coined and published by the British philosopher Jeremy Bentham (1748–1832) in 1826.

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FOOTLOOSE adjective (foot-loos)

adjective

1. free to go or travel about; not confined by responsibilities.


Quotes

... when you're twenty-two and footloose in a foreign city you give no thought to the future.
--*Richard Mason,*Drowning People, 1999


Oh Dapple, Dapple, you wild gadabout, how footloose you have become!
--*Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra (1547–1616),*Don Quixote, translated by John Rutherford, 2000



Origin

Footloose combines the words foot and loose. It was first recorded in the 1690s.

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BAKEMEAT noun (beyk-meet)

noun
1. Obsolete. pastry; pie.
2. Obsolete. cooked food, especially a meat pie.


Quotes

Already the smell of the marriage bake-meats was in the air: they were like to eat them with a sauce of sorrow.
--*E. F. Benson,*"The Dance on the Beefsteak," The Countess of Lowndes Square and Other Stories, 1920


Thrift, thrift, Horatio! the funeral bak'd-meats / Did coldly furnish forth the marriage tables.
--*William Shakespeare,*Hamlet, 1623



Origin

The English noun bakemeat has been obsolete since the end of the 17th century. The first syllable of bakemeat comes from the English verb bake, a derivative of the uncommon Proto-Indo-European root bhē-, bhō- “to warm, roast,” from which English also derives bathe (and German bähen), and Greek phōgein “to roast.” Meat originally meant food in general, not flesh (a sense that arose in the 13th century), as in the meat of a nut or fruit or in the proverb “One man’s meat is another man’s poison.” The Old English word was mete, closely akin to Old Frisian mete, Old Saxon meti, and Old Norse matr. Bakemeat entered English in the late 14th century in the prologue to Geoffrey Chaucer’s (1340?–1400) Canterbury Tales (composed after 1387).

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SCRUMMY adjective (skruhm-ee)

adjective

1. Chiefly British Informal. very pleasing, especially to the senses; delectable; splendid; scrumptious.


Quotes

Once we'd finished the scrummy meal and our tummies were protruding from the carb-fest overload ... I decided to fish for more information on the next day's activities.
--*Giovanna Fletcher,*You're the One That I Want, 2014


The pair of judges who hand down the verdicts are the onomatopoetic foodies Mary Berry and Paul Hollywood. Never have two people looked more like the sound of their names: he of the piercing eyes and flirtatious first bite, and she, the gentler and more senior, apt to declare something to be absolutely “scrummy.”
--*Nathan Englander,*"Letters of Recommendation: The Great British Baking Show," New York Times, October 5, 2017



Origin

Scrummy is one of those British colloquialisms that may leave non-Brits scratching their heads. Scrummy has nothing to do with a scrum or the verb to scrummage (in Rugby, equivalent to scrimmage in American football); it is a shortening of scrumptious with the common adjective suffix -y. Scrummy entered English in the mid-19th century.

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PENNYWORTH noun (pen-ee-wurth)

noun

1. a bargain.
2. as much as may be bought for a penny.
3. a small quantity.


Quotes

I'll ask Patty to go to the costumer's with me. She will get me a good pennyworth.
--*Mary Elizabeth Braddon,*The Infidel, 1900


... he has that point of good conscience, that he always sells as he buys, a good pennyworth, which is something rare, since he trades with so small a stock.
--*William Harrison Ainsworth,*Rookwood, 1834



Origin

Pennyworth is from before 1000. The Middle English form is penyworth and the Old English form is penigweorth.

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TORPORIFIC adjective (tawr-puh-rif-ik)

adjective

1. causing sluggish inactivity or inertia.


Quotes

Should you contemplate purchasing a copy of Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel García Márquez, a "mega-genius" according to Aaron (in private), he will tell you beforehand that García Márquez "is so rococo and torporific you'll need an insulin shot every twenty pages."
--*John Nichols,*On Top of Spoon Mountain, 2012


He was followed by Mme. Step*anova, whose alert face and bright, musical voice helped dispel the torporific atmos*phere engendered by the theo*retician.
--*Irving Drutman,*"Russian Method-ists Meet the American," New York Times, December 13, 1964



Origin

The English adjective torporific is Latinate but not Latin. Latin has the noun torpor “numbness, stupor” and the suffix -ficus “making, producing” (as in magnificus “grand, great”), but not the compound torporificus. Torporific entered English in the 18th century.

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HEARTH noun (hahrth)

noun

1. home; fireside: the joys of family and hearth.
2. the floor of a fireplace, usually of stone, brick, etc., often extending a short distance into a room.
3. Metallurgy. a. the lower part of a blast furnace, cupola, etc., in which the molten metal collects and from which it is tapped out. b. the part of an open hearth, reverberatory furnace, etc., upon which the charge is placed and melted down or refined.
4. a brazier or chafing dish for burning charcoal.


Quotes

May health and happiness dwell at our hearth.
--*Margot Livesey,*Eva Moves the Furniture, 2001


We will kindle the cheerful glow of our hearth at eventide, and be happy in its light.
--*Nathaniel Hawthorne,*"The Great Carbuncle," New-England Magazine, December 1835



Origin

Modern English hearth closely resembles Old English heorth and has kindred forms throughout Germanic: Old Frisian herth, Old High German herth, Old Saxon herth, German Herd, and Dutch haard. There are other words outside Germanic that are not so obviously related (perhaps not related at all), such as Latin carbō (stem carbon-) “coal (dead or burning), charcoal.” Hearth dates from the Old English period.

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MAZUMA noun (mah-zoo-muh)

noun

1. Slang. money.


Quotes

"Have you got any mazuma?" "I beg your pardon, sir?" "Don't beg my pardon, it makes me nervous. Mazuma, mazuma, the old dough-re-mi, bread, the old filthy lucre ..." ... "Money," Whip Gunther said bluntly.
--*Mack Reynolds,*Space Search, 1984


... in the mean time if you need any mazuma I always got a little roll tucked away in my sock.
--*Edgar Rice Burroughs,*The Efficiency Expert, 1921



Origin

Mazuma “cash” is an American slang word of Yiddish origin. The Yiddish original is mazume or mezumen, from post-Biblical (Mishnaic) Hebrew mǝzummānīm “ready money, cash,” from mǝzummān “prepared.” Mazuma has always been associated with pulp detective stories and men wearing double-breasted suits and fedoras, except for the spectacular exception of Hopalong Cassidy, the cowboy created by the U.S. author Clarence E. Mulford (1883–1956). The prose Hopalong was much cruder than William Boyd’s smooth portrayal in the movies of the 1930s and ‘40s. In Mulford’s Coming of Cassidy (1913), Hopalong says to Sammy Porter, “Money...It's that shiny stuff you buys things with. Spondulix, cash, mazuma. You spend it, you know," (spondulix is not a term in cowboy talk, either). Mazuma entered English in the early 20th century.

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BENEVOLENCE noun (buh-nev-uh-luh ns)

noun

1. desire to do good to others; goodwill; charitableness: to be filled with benevolence toward one's fellow creatures.
2. an act of kindness; a charitable gift.
3. English History. a forced contribution to the sovereign.


Quotes

He had an overflowing affection of soul, that could not confine itself to the person of his son, or the aggrandizement of his country, or be spiritualized into a metaphysical adoration of ideal beauty. It bestowed itself on his fellow creatures; and to see them happy, warmed his heart with a pleasure experienced by few. This man, his imaginative flights, his glowing benevolence and his humble occupations, were an enigma that Castruccio could never solve.
--*Mary Shelley,*Valperga, 1823


“From the first stroke of my ballpoint pen, I was the recipient of the well-appreciated benevolence of many,” Ferris said of her opus. “Not the least of which has been a willing readership who lent my ‘doorstop’ their gorgeous minds.”
--*Michael Cavna,*"Emil Ferris's graphic novel 'Monsters' tops diverse slate of 2017 Ignatz Award winners," Washington Post, September 18, 2017



Origin

Benevolence is a borrowing Latin. Benevolentia is a derivative of the adjective benevolēns “well wishing,” from the adverb bene “well,” a derivative of the adjective bonus “good,” and volent-, the present participle stem of velle “to will, wish.” Benevolentia according to its etymology is a quality of the will, not an emotion. There is, however, always a tinge of feeling or affection. Benevolence entered English in the 14th century

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SAGITTATE adjective (saj-i-teyt)

adjective

1. shaped like an arrowhead.


Quotes

In the forks of the great branches repose the large green masses of the Bromeliaceous plants, and up the trunks climb numerous aroids with their huge sagittate leaves.
--*Henry Nottidge Moseley,*Notes by a Naturalist on the Challenger, 1879


A sagittate flock of swans winged its way out of the south and alighted on open water.
--*Cecilia Dart-Thornton,*The Ill-Made Mute, 2001



Origin

Sagittate derives from New Latin sagittātus “shaped like an arrowhead” and is restricted entirely to the biological sciences (botany and entomology). In Latin sagittātus is a past participle meaning “shot or wounded by an arrow,” from the verb sagittāre “to discharge or fire arrows.” Sagittate entered English in the mid-18th century.