Word of the Day, List #6 Flashcards

Def: to give control, responsibility, or authority to someone; to trust someone with a job or duty

• can also mean "to choose someone to do something"

DYK: descendant of the Latin word legare, meaning "to send"

• noun: arrived in English in the 14th century
• verb: arrived in the 16th century
• distant cousins trace back to the word legare: legacy, colleague, regulate, and legate

Def: a person who is exceptionally smart or talented + refers to great natural ability, or to a part of something that makes it unusually good or valuable

DYK: has origin in ancient Roman religion, coming from the Latin word gignere, "to beget"

• 1st arrived in English in the 14th century

Def: happening by chance + having or showing good luck

DYK: came from the Latin word fortunitus, which shares the same root as fores, meaning "chance"

• since the word sounds like a blend of fortunate and felicitous, it later adopted this definition

Def: "to collect or gather something" or "to get or receive something wanted or valued"

DYK:

• followed 3 centuries later w/ a closely related meaning: "to gather into a granary"
• has largely abandoned its agrarian toots; usually means "to earn" or "to accumulate"

Def: a problem that is difficult, confusing, or intricate + can refer to a riddle whose answer is or involves a pun

DYK:

• used since the 1600s
• theory of origin suggests that the word was coined as a parody of Latin by students at Oxford University

Def: formal word used to describe people or things that are markedly simple & restrained in appearance, manner, or attitude

DYK: comes from askētikos, a Greek adjective meaning "laborious"

• earliest meaning in English implies the labor involved in abstention from pleasure, comfort, and self-indulgence as a spiritual discipline

Def: a person who pretends to know or be something in order to deceive people

DYK: came from the words cerretano, "inhabitant of Cerreto" & ciarlare, "to chatter"

• the 2 were so associated with on another that they combined into ciarlatano (Italy)

Def: a philosophical term meaning "exhibiting or relating to purpose or design especially in nature"

DYK: comes to us by way of New Latin from the Greek root telos, meaning "end or purpose"

• in close relation w/ the word teleology, meaning "the study of ends or purposes"

Def: refers to speech or writing that is meant to sound important or impressive but isn't sincere or meaningful

DYK: its ultimate source is likely Middle Persian pambak, meaning "cotton"

• settled softly into English in the mid-late 16th century as a textile term used to refer to cotton or other soft fibrous material used as padding or stuffing

Def: most often describes something that has. delicious taste or smell

• "richly luxurious or appealing to the senses"
• "excessively ornate"
• "sexually attractive"

DYK: developed when licius (comes from the Latin verb delicere, meaning "to entice by charm or attraction") was further altered to lucius

Def: formal word often used to refer to a person's facial expression, or to the face generally, especially as an indication of mood, emotion, or character

DYK: comes from a mix between the Latin words continēre (to hold together) & countenance

Def: formal used to describe something that is difficult to understand or something that is not known by many people

DYK: coined from the Latin word reconditus, meaning "to conceal"

• the past principal = recondere

Def: refers to a field of coarse, granular snow, granular snow or "the partially compacted granular snow that forms the surface part of the upper end of a glacier"

DYK: comes from the Swiss dialect of French & from the Latin word for snow, nix

• niveous & subnivean

Def: a leading champion of a cause, or a trusted military leader

DYK: came from the Latin word palatinus "imperial" or "imperial official"

• different forms of the words passed through Latin, Italian, and French

Def: "to deceive or trick someone"

DYK: draws on an older and more obscure meaning of the word wink

• originally meant "to cover someone's eyes"

Def: "not capable of being appeased, significantly changed, or mitigated; not placable"

DYK: rooted in Latin placare, meaning "to soothe" + im- prefix implies the negative

Def: someone who hates people in general

DYK: adopted in early 17th century from Greek misanthrōpos "hating humankind"

• encouraged by French playwright Molière
• has close relation in misanthropy, "a hatred or district of humankind"

Def: formal word meaning "of, relating to, or similar to a fox"

• used figuratively to mean "shred or crafty"

DYK: came from the Latin word vulpes, meaning "fox" & vulpinus

Def: to make more violent, bitter, or severe

DYK: combination of Latin prefix ex- "out of" or "outside" with acer/acerbus "harsh" or "bitter"

Def: used to mean "little or no attention or consideration"

• sometimes synonymous with "quick work"

DYK: 1st use of the phrase comes from William Shakespeare's play Richard III

• at the time referred to the confession or absolution of sins