pied-a-terre – A small town house or rooms used for short residences (1829), from French “foot on the ground.” More…
party wall – A wall common to two adjoining buildings or rooms. More…
lobby – One of its early meanings was “monastic cloister,” from Latin lobia, “covered way,” before it came to mean the passage or waiting area between rooms in a building. More…
enfilade – A suite of rooms with doorways in line with each other—or a vista between rows of trees. More…
happy-clappy – Refers to any Christian congregation that is extremely enthusiastic, loud, and musical. More…
stentor – Homer introduced Stentor, a very loud herald, in the Iliad—which gives us stentor, “person with a loud voice,” and stentorian, which originally meant “loud, booming.” More…
rodomontade – Meaning loud bragging, it got its name from Rodomonto, a loud bragging Moorish king of epics. More…
thersitical, clamant – To be thersitical is to be loudmouthed or foulmouthed; clamant is loud and insistent. More…
high noon – Exactly 12 noon. More…
luncheon – An extension of the word lunch, based on nuncheon, “a drink taken at noon.” More…
noon – Derived from the Latin word nona, “ninth,” as it originally meant the ninth hour after sunrise, about 3 p.m. More…
post meridiem – The expansion of p.m., from Latin, meaning “after noon” (1647). More…
arrant – Means “complete, utter,” as in arrant knave, “an extremely untrustworthy individual.” More…
explore – Comes from Latin, meaning “search out,” from ex-, “out,” and plorare, “utter a cry.” More…
whicker – To utter a half-suppressed laugh. More…
yodel – From Bavarian jodln, “to utter the syllable jo (yo).” More…
windbreak – A row of trees acting as a fence. More…
acrostic – From Greek akron, “end,” and stikhos, “row, line of verse.” More…
queue – Has the forms queued and queuing or queueing; queueing has five vowels in a row. More…
row – The verb comes from Germanic ro-, “steer,” and row, “orderly line,” which is from Germanic raigwa. More…
infernal – An inhabitant of the underworld can be called an infernal. More…
sherpa – Literally means “inhabitant of an eastern country.” More…
aborigine – From Classical Latin meaning “ancestors,” it was spelled with a capital A as the name of the primeval Romans; the first people called aborigines were the original inhabitants of Italy and Greece and aborigine was specifically applied to the inhabitants of a country ab origine, “from the beginning.” More…
artificial language – An invented language, as opposed to a hereditary one, intended for a special use, as in international communication, a secret society, or computer programming. More…
auspicious, propitious – Auspicious implies success in the future, while propitious means favorable conditions are present; auspicious means promising or of good omen—not just special or memorable. More…
niche product – A product that is made and marketed for use in a small and specialized but profitable market. More…
advertisement – From advertir, Old French for “to notice,” and ultimately from Latin advertere, “to turn toward.” More…
emit, emission, emissary – Emit, emission, and emissary come from Latin emittere, “send out,” and emit once meant “publish a book or notice.” More…
notable, noticeable – Notable means “worthy of notice” and noticeable means “readily observed.” More…
remark – From an intensified French word marquer, “observe, notice,” i.e. “making a verbal observation.” More…
cark – The noun means “solicitude or sympathetic feeling”; the verb means to fret anxiously or to cause distress or worry. More…
distrait, distraught – Distrait means “absent-minded as a result of apprehension, worry, etc.”—while distraught means “agitated” and “bewildered, distracted.” More…
ish kabbible – Meaning “I should worry,” it is of unknown origin, but is perhaps derived from Yiddish nisht gefidlt, popularized (and perhaps coined) by comedienne Fanny Brice. More…
kedogenous – “Brought about by worry or anxiety.” More…