Category: Word Trivia

papyrus

volume – Originally the name of a scroll or roll of papyrus, from Latin volvere, “to roll up.” More…

bible – Derived from biblios, the name for the papyrus produced in the ancient Phoenician city of Byblos. More…

schedule – Goes back to Greek skhede, for “leaf of papyrus”; it started out meaning a ticket or a brief note. More…

tome – Comes from Greek tomos, “roll of papyrus,” and was originally a word for one volume of a larger work. More…

hasty

hasting, hasty – An early-ripening fruit or vegetable is a hasting and such a food that ripens early is termed “hasty.” More…

hasty pudding – An ancient dish of flour boiled in water to thick consistency, with milk or beer added afterwards. More…

festinate, festination – If something is hasty or hurried, it is festinate, and to festinate is to walk fast, make haste; festination is “haste, speed.” More…

precipitous, precipitate – Precipitous, “hasty, sudden and dramatic,” is used in relation to physical or natural objects; precipitate, “done with great haste,” relates to human actions or processes. More…

lights

day – One of the perpendicular divisions or “lights” of a mullioned window. More…

blackout – Originally a theatrical term for the extinguishing of all lights on the stage when scenery was shifted. More…

taps, last post – Taps, the bugle call for lights out, was originally a drum roll and got its name from the tapping of the drums; taps are also called last post. More…

twilight – The time of two lights, the fading sunset and the emerging light of the moon and stars; there are three sequential stages of twilight: civil twilight, nautical twilight, and astronomical twilight. More…

small room

aedicule – A small room or structure used as a shrine—or a niche for a statue. More…

cove – Comes from Old English cofa, “small room,” from the Germanic root kubon, and came to mean “small hollow place in coastal rocks,” and then “small bay.” More…

cabinet – Originally meant a small room and came to apply to the group of politicians who met in the room. More…

conclave – Based on Latin con- and clavis, “key,” as it was first an inner chamber or private room to which one would have needed a key, literally a “place that can be locked up,” or a room or set of rooms that can be opened with only one key. More…