Category: Word Trivia

acephalous – A manuscript lacking a beginning could be called acephalous. More…

autograph – Comes from Greek, then Latin autographum, meaning “self-written”; it originally meant “author’s own manuscript.” More…

manuscript – Originally an adjective meaning “written by hand”; manuscript can refer to a handwritten piece of music. More…

palimpsest – Can describe a manuscript or writing surface that has been reused, erased, or altered while retaining traces of its earlier form—and, by extension, an object, place, or area that reflects its history. More…

sparable – A headless nail used for soles and heels of shoes. More…

recalcitrant – Comes from Latin recalcitrare, “kick out with the heels,” from calx, “heel.” More…

heel – The crusty ends of a loaf of bread are its heels. More…

Dog Star – Named for its appearing to follow at the heels of Orion the hunter. More…

comportment, deportment – Deportment adds the sense of action or activity to a mode of conduct or behavior; comportment, “behavior or bearing,” does not have this. More…

dictionary – Based on Latin dictio(n-), “mode of expression” or “word,” then dictionarius, “a repertory of words or phrases.” More…

diet – Comes from Greek diaita, “a way of life, mode of living.” More…

mode – Originally a tune or air and later a scheme of sounds. More…

nimbostratus cloud – Can drop precipitation but has no lightning or thunder. More…

artillery – A poetic term for thunder and lightning. More…

coup de foudre – A sudden unforeseen event or instantaneous and overwhelming passion, such as love at first sight; it is French, literally, “stroke of lightning.” More…

lightning – Etymologically, lightning is simply something that illuminates or “lightens” the sky, a contraction of the earlier “lightening.” More…

donnybrook – Donnybrook is a suburb of Dublin, Ireland, once famous for its annual fair and now used to describe a scene of uproar or disorder. More…

hurly-burly – Turmoil or an uproar. More…

rum – Once known as rumbo, rumbowling, rumbustion, or rumbullion—from a Devonshire word meaning “uproar.” More…

stampede – From Mexican Spanish estampida, “crash, uproar.” More…

bangers and mash – Sausage and mashed potatoes. More…

farrago – From Latin, originally “a mash for feeding cattle”; later, figuratively, a medley or hodgepodge. More…

mash – Originally malt mixed with hot water, to make wort. More…

mush, moosh – Mush and moosh (nouns) are variations on mash. More…

hostage – First referred to the state of someone handed over as a pledge or security (for the fulfillment of an undertaking). More…

policy – Meaning “insurance document,” it is from a French word meaning “certificate, contract,” from an earlier Latin word meaning “a receipt or security for money paid.” More…

impignorate, pignorate – To impignorate or pignorate means to put up as security or to pawn. More…

wage, wager – Wage once meant “pledge, security” and wager was defined as “solemn pledge” or “undertaking,” from French wagier, “to pledge.” More…