Posts in Origin of the word
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Origin of the word "Pelt"
A short word with two jobs Pelt is one of those compact English words that looks simple until you try to put it in a single dictionary box. As a noun it is the untreated skin of an animal with the hai
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Origin of the word "Rubus"
A learned name for familiar plants In ordinary English, almost nobody says they are going out to pick a rubus. The word belongs to botany. It names any plant in the genus Rubus, a large group in the r
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Origin of the word "Malacologist"
A specialist in living softness A malacologist is a zoologist who studies molluscs: snails and slugs, clams and mussels, squids and octopuses, and the rest of the phylum. The job title names the perso
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Origin of the word "Ravisher"
A name for the one who seizes In present-day English, ravisher is an agent noun: the person who ravishes. That definition is almost empty until the verb is unpacked. To ravish can still mean to rape,
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Origin of the word "Animate"
Living, then set in motion In present-day English, animate is two words that look the same on the page. As an adjective, usually with a light last syllable, it means living: an animate creature as aga
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Origin of the word "Martial"
A warlike adjective In current English, martial names what belongs to war, to soldiers, or to a soldierly manner. Martial music is written for the march. A martial bearing is the look of someone train
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Origin of the word "Puddler"
In mill towns and in older dictionaries, a puddler is the furnace hand who turned pig iron into wrought iron. The work meant standing at a reverberatory hearth and stirring a bath of molten metal unti
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Origin of the word "Docent"
A teacher in two workplaces In American English a docent is usually the person who leads visitors through a museum, a historic house, or a gallery and explains what they are looking at. The work is pu
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Origin of the word "Tempter"
What English uses it for now A tempter is a person — and sometimes a thing — that tries to pull someone toward a choice they already suspect is unwise. The noun still carries a moral charge. It names
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Origin of the word "Seta"
A laboratory bristle In ordinary English, almost nobody needs the noun seta. In biology it is hard to avoid. It names a slender, usually stiff or springy organ that looks like a bristle or a coarse ha
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Origin of the word "Jazzy"
What speakers mean by it Call a jacket jazzy today and most listeners will picture a loud print, not a combo. In current English the adjective carries two living senses that dictionaries still keep ap
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Origin of the word "Parousia"
In English, parousia is a learned theological noun. It names the expected return of Christ at the end of history, the event more often called the Second Coming. That is the sense desk dictionaries tre
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Origin of the word "Oxeye"
A flower named for a cattle eye In ordinary English today, oxeye is first a plant name. It does not pick out a single species. Field guides and garden lists use it for several daisy-like composites wh
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Origin of the word "Worldling"
A person of this life A worldling is someone absorbed in the business, comforts, and appetites of the present age rather than in spiritual or otherworldly concerns. English still has the noun, but it
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Origin of the word "Senior"
Older, higher, last in line In current English, senior marks someone older than another person, higher in rank, or further along in a course of study. A father may be listed as John Smith Senior when
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