I was curious about the etymology of this timely word:
Category Archives: words
Word of the Week
Leapling (n.): a person who was born on February 29th. Also called leapers.
Did you know there are 7% fewer births on February 29th than there should be?
From the Bible
Word of the Week
Fungible
Ted Cruz and others used ‘fungible’ this week when talking about the money that was returned to Iran during the Obama administration. Someone asked Cruz whether he could prove that the money returned to Iran was used for terrorism and he said money’s fungible. Since cash goes into one pot that’s then used for various expenses no one can say this particular cash paid for this particular expense. It’s part of the total funds and some of those funds were used to fund terrorism.
Scott Adams praised Cruz for his answer this week, though he thought the word wasn’t used accurately.
Word of the Week
sitzmark, n.: An impression made in the snow by a skier falling backwards on his or her backside; an act of falling in this way.’
Pronunciation: Brit. /ˈsɪtsmɑːk/, U.S. /ˈsɪtsˌmɑrk/
Origin: Apparently a borrowing from German, combined with an English element; probably modelled on a German lexical item. Etymons: German sitzen, mark n.1
Etymology:Apparently < German sitzen sit v. + mark n.1, probably after German Sitzspur (1926 or earlier in this sense; 19th cent. in sense ‘trace or impression left by a person or animal in sitting position’).
Reference
“Sitzmark.” (n.d.) Oxford English Dictionary.
Word of the Week
Gloze: verb (used with object), glozed, gloz·ing.
to explain away; extenuate; gloss over (usually followed by over).
Read it in Henvy V, which I’m reading/watching for tomorrow’s Great Books discussion.
Word of the Week
While organizing some papers I found a slip of paper with this written on it.
Word of the Week
pettifogging: adjective
insignificant; petty:
pettifogging details.
dishonest or unethical in insignificant matters; meanly petty.
It has a ring to it and pettifogging sounds like its meaning.
Word of the Week
I read this in The Ukimwi Road and looked it up.
anserine: adj. silly or stupid as in “Stop your anserine behavior.”
Word of the Week
I like the sound of this word, as well as the look of it written with a flourish above. I discovered fellifluous via my daily emails from Oxford English Dictionary, my all time favorite source for information on words.
I hope you don’t encounter any fellifluous folks this weekend.
