Word Of The Day

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ORGANON noun (awr-guh-non)

noun
1. an instrument of thought or knowledge.


Quotes

... for genuine proof in concrete matter we require an organon more delicate, versatile, and elastic than verbal argumentation.
--*John Henry Newman,*An Essay in Aid of a Grammar of Assent, 1870


It [logic] thus sunk into the position of an Organon or instrument.
--*William Wallace,*Prolegomena to the Study of Hegel's Philosophy and Especially of His Logic, 2nd ed., 1894



Origin

The Greek noun órganon means “tool, instrument, sensory organ, body part, musical instrument (whence the English name of the musical instrument), surgical instrument, table of calculations, (a concrete) work, work product, and a set of principles for conducting scientific and philosophical work.” This last meaning first occurs in the works of the Peripatetic philosopher Alexander of Aphrodisias, who lived in the late 2nd and early 3rd centuries a.d. and was the most famous ancient Greek commentator on Aristotle. Órganon is a derivative of the Greek root erg-, org- (also dialectal werg-, worg-), from the Proto-Indo-European root werg-, worg-; the Germanic form of this root is werk-, whence English work. Organon in its sense “bodily organ” entered English in the late 16th century; the philosophical sense entered English in the early 17th century.

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AVENACEOUS adjective (av-uh-ney-shuhs)

adjective
1. of or like oats.


Quotes

See birds that know our avenaceous store / Stoop to our hand, and thence repleted soar ...
--*H. C. Bunner,*"Home, Sweet Home, with Variations: V.," Scribner's Monthly, Vol. 22, 1881


A spikelet, almost entire, of what seems to be a species of Poa, and the flowering glume of another grass, probably avenaceous, have also been found.
--*H. Hesketh Prichard,*Through the Heart of Patagonia, 1902



Origin

The very rare adjective avenaceous, meaning “of, like, or pertaining to oats,” is used only in botany. Avenaceous comes straight from the Latin adjective avēnāceus “made from oats,” a derivative of avēna “oats,” which comes from the same Proto-Indo-European source as Lithuanian avižà and Slavic (Polish) owies, both meaning “oats.” Avenaceous entered English in the 18th century.

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WILDER verb (wil-der)

verb
1. to cause to lose one's way.

verb (used without object)
1. to lose one's way.


Quotes

Many an older head than his has been wildered by that fatal uniformity, that endless wilderness of green, those seeming tracks, which only lead deeper and deeper into the heart of the deadly scrub.
--*Harriet M. Davidson,*"The Hamiltons," Chapter VII,*Chambers's Journal*of Popular Literature, Science, and Art, No. 771, October 5, 1878


... in such a manner as to wilder the soul into vast and unthought-of horrors.
--*Thomas Goodwin (1600–1680),*The Works of Thomas Goodwin, Vol. 3, 1861



Origin

The rare, archaic verb wilder “to lead astray” is pronounced with a short -i- as in children, not a long -i- as in child. The etymology of wilder is difficult: it looks like a frequentative verb formed from the adjective wild, or an irregular derivative from wilderness that was influenced by wander. Wilder entered English in the early 17th century.

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CAMP noun (kamp)

noun
1. something that provides sophisticated, knowing amusement, as by virtue of its being artlessly mannered or stylized, or self-consciously artificial and extravagant.

verb (used without object)
1. to speak or behave in a coquettishly playful or extravagantly theatrical manner.

adjective
1. campy: camp Hollywood musicals of the 1940s.


Quotes

Indeed the essence of Camp is its love of the unnatural: of artifice and exaggeration.
--*Susan Sontag,*"Notes on 'Camp',"*Partisan Review, Vol. 31, No. 4, 1964


From “RuPaul’s Drag Race” to the current celebration of all things Warhol and*Banksy’s self-destructing painting, Mr. Bolton sees the explosion of camp as a partial riposte to the corresponding rise of extreme conservatism and populism.
--*Vanessa Friedman,*"Met Costume Institute Embraces 'Camp' for 2019 Blockbuster Show," New York Times, October 9, 2018



Origin

Many explanations have been offered, but the etymology of*camp*"something that provides sophisticated, knowing amusement, as by virtue of its being artlessly mannered or stylized, or self-consciously artificial and extravagant" remains obscure. The term*entered English in the early 1900s.

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BLOSSOM noun (blos-uhm)

noun
1. the flower of a plant, especially of one producing an edible fruit.

verb
1. to flourish; develop: a writer of commercial jingles who blossomed out into an important composer.


Quotes

... the beauty of their island only blossomed the further through time they moved away from it.
--*Roxane Gay,*An Untamed State, 2014


This bit of utilitarian Web ephemera [the hashtag], invented with functionality squarely in mind, has*blossomed*into*a marvelous and underappreciated literary device.
--*Julia Turner,*"#InPriaseOfTheHashtag,"*New York Times Magazine, November 2, 2012



Origin

Blossom in both the noun and the verb senses dates back to Old English. The Old English verb blōstmian “to bloom, blossom, effloresce” is a derivative of the noun blōstm, blōstma, blōsma “blossom, flower.” The English words blossom, bloom, and blow (“a yield or display of blossoms”) are all Germanic derivatives of the Proto-Indo-European root bhel-, bhlē-, bhlō- (and other variants) “to thrive, bloom.” In Latin the root appears in flōs (inflectional stem flōr-) “flower“ (which via Old French yields English flower, flour, and flourish). English florescent comes straight from Latin flōrescent-, the inflectional stem of flōrescēns, the present participle of flōrescere “to come into bloom.” Other English derivatives from Latin include floral and folium “leaf,” which becomes, again through Old French, English foil. Greek has the noun phýllon “leaf,” whose most common English derivative is probably chlorophyll.

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PERSPICACITY noun (pur-spi=kas-i-tee)

noun
1. keenness of mental perception and understanding; discernment; penetration.


Quotes

How well she deceived her father we shall have occasion to learn; but her innocent arts were of little avail before a person of the rare perspicacity of Mrs. Penniman.
--*Henry James,*Washington Square, 1880


This early work shows that Saramago had yet to achieve his radical style, but his perspicacity and wit were already fully formed.
--*Carmela Ciuraru,*"Newly Released Books; Skylight," New York Times, December 24, 2014



Origin

Perspicacity ultimately comes from the Late Latin noun perspicācitās (inflectional stem perspicācitāt-) “sharp-sightedness, discernment,” a derivative of the Latin adjective perspicāx (inflectional stem perspicāc-) “sharp-sighted, penetrating, acute.” Perspicāx is a derivative of the verb perspicere “to inspect thoroughly, examine, look through, see through.” The prefix per- here is both literal (“to see or look through”) and intensive (“to examine thoroughly”). The combining form -spicere comes from specere “to see, observe, keep an eye on,” a Latin derivative of the Proto-Indo-European root spek-, spok- “look at closely, examine.” Greek metathesizes the root to skep- and skop- (as in the English derivatives skeptic and horoscope). The Germanic form of the root, speh-, is the source of English spy and espionage. Perspicacity entered English in the 16th century.

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POPINJAY noun (pop-in-jey)

noun
1. a person given to vain, pretentious displays and empty chatter.


Quotes

... Matt Damon brings preening fun to a popinjay in spurs and suede fringe; his throwaway lines and sidelong glances finally realize the comic promise the character always possessed.
--*Ann Hornaday,*"Cohen brothers' 'True Grit' is polished and entertaining," Washington Post, December 22, 2010


The Prince of Wales (Rupert Everett) is a nasty popinjay, and George's prime minister, Pitt the Younger ... a manipulative cold fish.
--*David Denby,*"It's a Mad Mad Mad George," New York, January 2, 1995



Origin

The many spellings of popinjay, e.g., papejay, popingay, papinjai in Middle English, in medieval Romance languages, and in medieval Germanic languages, demonstrate the foreign, exotic origin of the term, let alone the bird. The English change of the final syllable from -gay to -jay may be by folk etymology, through association with the jay, the name of several kinds of raucous, lively birds of the crow family. Medieval Latin has papagallus, whose first half, papa-, may be imitative of the bird’s cry; the second half, gallus, is the ordinary Latin noun for “rooster, cock.” Papagallus comes from medieval Greek papagállos, itself a derivative of papagás, from Arabic babghā’, babbaghā’, which is imitative of the bird’s cry. Popinjay entered English in the 13th century in the now obsolete sense of a picture or representation of a parrot (as on a tapestry).

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MOTTE noun (mot)

noun
1. a grove or clump of trees in prairie land or open country.


Quotes

We came up finally to a place where the road made a bend around a motte of trees, and I thought I ought to be able to find it again.
--*Elmer Kelton,*Joe Pepper, 1975


They'd camped at the edge of a motte, a thick grove of oak trees, not too far from the Arroyo Colorado ...
--*Larry D. Sweazy,*The Gila Wars, 2013



Origin

Motte is a word that may cause food fights in reference libraries among etymologists. Motte, “a grove or stand of trees in prairie land or open country,” is a regionalism in the American Southwest, especially in Texas. The origin of motte may be from Mexican Spanish mata, from European Spanish mata “grove, plantation,” and perhaps from Late Latin matta, source of English mat. Other authorities say that motte is not a borrowing from Spanish but from French motte “hillock, mound” (English moat), related to Medieval Latin mota “hill, mound, fortified height” (further etymology is speculative). Motte entered English in the 19th century.

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MOTHER WIT noun (muhth-er wit)

noun
1. natural or practical intelligence, wit, or sense.


Quotes

... not one of the rest of us had the guts, the gumption, or the mother wit to recognize where all four of us were headed and drag the fool to a stop.
--*David Weber,*How Firm a Foundation, 2011


One's*mother wit*was a precious sort of necromancy, which could pierce every mystery at first sight ....
--*Edward Bulwer-Lytton,*Devereux, 1829



Origin

Mother knows best, as they say. In mother wit, the word mother means "innate, inborn." Wit comes from a very widespread Proto-Indo-European root weid-, woid-, wid- “to see, know.” This root appears in Latin vidēre “to see,” Sanskrit veda “knowledge,” Greek ideîn (and dialect wideîn) “to know” (literally “to have seen”), Slavic (Czech) vědět “to know” and vidět “to see.” From wid- Germanic (Old English) has the verb witan “to know.” In Old English the first and third person singular form was wāt “I know; he/she/it knows,” which survives today as the obsolete word wot (“God wot”). Mother wit entered English in the 15th century.