Tag: Word of the week

Word of the Week

fistic

[ fis-tik ] 

adjective

of boxing; pugilistic.

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WHAT IS THE ORIGIN OF FISTIC?

Fistic “pertaining to the fists or boxing” is a transparent compound of the English noun fist and the adjective suffix –ic. Fist comes from Old English fȳst and is closely related to Dutch vuist and German Faust. The thoroughly naturalized suffix –ic derives from Latin –icus and Greek –ikos and was originally applied to Latin or Greek nouns (such as metallic, music, poetic, public). Fistic is a facetious synonym of pugilistic, which is a derivative of Latin pugil “fist fighter, boxer.” Pugil is akin to pugna “fist” and its derived verb pugnāre “to fight,” ultimate source of English pugnacious. All of the Latin words are related to the Greek adverb pýx “with the fist,” and the noun pygmḗ “fist, fistfight, boxing,” also a measure of length from the elbow to the knuckles (of the fist). Fistic entered English in the early 19th century.

HOW IS FISTIC USED?

Yes, boxing and the other fistic and grappling arts are still with us, driven by the popularity of mixed martial arts and Ultimate Mixed Fighting bouts.WILLIAM PORTER, “METRO DENVER GYMS OFFER A WORKOUT FOR EVERYONE,” DENVER POST, JULY 7, 2014

To continue in fistic phraseology, he had a genius for coming up to the scratch, wherever and whatever it was, and proving himself an ugly customer. … He was certain to knock the wind out of common sense …CHARLES DICKENS, HARD TIMES, 1854

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Latin Word of the Week~ Expand Your Vocabulary

ignicomans–

having fiery hair, fiery-haired

Pronunciation

Word of the Week

Pediculous

https://www.merriam-webster.com/word-of-the-day/pediculous-2020-09-02

Definition

: infested with lice : lousy

Did You Know?

Count on the English language’s Latin lexical options to pretty up the unpleasant. You can have an entire conversation about lice and avoid the l-word entirely using pediculous and its relatives. None of the words (from pediculus, meaning “louse”) is remotely common, but they’re all available to you should you feel the need for them. There’s pediculosis, meaning “infestation with lice,” pedicular, “of or relating to lice,” and pediculoid, “resembling or related to the common lice.” Pediculid names a particular kind of louse—one of the family Pediculidae. And if you’d like to put an end to all of this you might require a pediculicide—defined as “an agent for destroying lice.”

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Examples

All of the campers in the cabin had to be checked for lice when one boy’s sleeping bag was discovered to be pediculous.

“They say pediculous humors and fly borne air are culprits of plague, so the townsmen make a pyre of flowers and brush, attar and spikenard, by way of purging the air of offense.” — Fiona Maazel, Last Last Chance, 2008

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Word of the Week

Word of the Week

Word of the Week

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mondegreen

[ mon-di-green ]

noun

a word or phrase resulting from a mishearing of another word or phrase, especially in a song or poem.

ORIGIN OF MONDEGREEN

1954; coined by Sylvia Wright, U.S. writer, from the line laid him on the green, interpreted as Lady Mondegreen, in a Scottish ballad

DICTIONARY.COM UNABRIDGED BASED ON THE RANDOM HOUSE UNABRIDGED DICTIONARY, © RANDOM HOUSE, INC. 2020

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Word of the Week

gest

play

noun JEST

Definition

1 : a tale of adventures; especially : a romance in verse

2 : adventure, exploit

Did You Know?

“Let the Queen know of our gests,” Antony instructs his men after a hard-won victory on the battlefield in William Shakespeare’s Antony and Cleopatra. Great deeds and heroic acts have been the stuff of gests since medieval days; in fact, the word is more often associated with knights and heroes of old than with modern adventurers. We may not be hearing about many 21st century gests, but we do frequently encounter other relatives of the word. Gest traces to Latin gestus, the past participle of the verb gerere, which means “to wage,” “to bear,” or “to carry,” among other things. That Latin verb gave us stoutly enduring words like gesture, ingest, jest, register, and suggest.

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Examples

“The best authentic source of Robin Hood stories is the late medieval poem A Gest of Robyn Hode…, a compilation of traditional ballads and stories.” — Guy McDonald, England, 2003

“I was looking forward to this film [Onward] for the last month. My mom follows ‘new’ movie trailers and called me as soon as she saw this one. The gest was essentially an adventure about two brothers.” — Andrew McManus, The Portsmouth (Ohio) Daily Times, 11 Mar. 2020

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Word of the Week, In Three Different Languages

SPANISH-

bucear

to scuba dive

EXAMPLES

  1. Mi esposo y yo estábamos buceando en Maui cuando vimos una mantarraya gigante pasar justo al lado de nosotros.My husband and I were scuba diving in Maui when we saw a huge manta ray pass right beside us.
  2. Vamos a bucear con tiburones en Cancún en las próximas vacaciones.We are going to scuba dive with sharks in Cancun on our next vacation.

ENGLISH-

scuba-dive

[ˈsko͞obəˌdīv]VERBscuba-dive (verb) · scuba-dives (third person present) · scuba-dived (past tense) · scuba-dived (past participle) · scuba-diving (present participle)swim underwater using scuba-diving equipment.

“visitors can learn to scuba-dive in the Marine Reserve”

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GERMAN-

scuba diving  noun

Gerätetauchen nt

less common:Scubatauchennt · Sporttauchennt“scuba-diving” could be Present Participle

scuba-dive  verb (scuba-dived, scuba-dived)

tauchen v (mit Gerät)