Category: Word Trivia

piff – Something insignificant. More…

bee’s knees – Used from 1797 for “something insignificant.” More…

floccinaucinihilipilification, floccipend – Floccinaucinihilipilification is estimating or categorizing something as worthless, and floccipend means “regard as insignificant” (from Latin flocci pendere, “hold at little value”). More…

piteous, pitiable, pitiful – Piteous is generally not used when speaking of people, pitiable means “able to be pitied,” and pitiful most often means “insignificant; below contempt.” More…

mechanical drawing – One made with scales, rulers, and compasses. More…

ctenoid – Means “resembling a thin-toothed comb”—like the scales of some fish. More…

level – Based on Latin libella, a diminutive of libra, “balance; scales.” More…

scab – First pertained to any skin disease in which pustules or scales were formed, and is from Old Norse skabbr, “crust over a wound.” More…

gyre – A circular movement or revolution; to cause to spin around or whirl. More…

rebellion, revolution – Rebellion is open resistance to a government or authority; revolution is a rebellion that succeeds in overthrowing the government and establishing a new one. More…

rev – An abbreviation of revolution. More…

young Turk – Term for a tyrannical or unmanageable man, based on the members of a party of Turkish agitators that brought about the revolution of 1908. More…

acatalepsy – Greek for “not thoroughly seizing” or “incomprehensibility.” More…

rapine – Means “the act or practice of seizing and taking away by force the property of others.” More…

ravishing – Can mean “seizing on prey.” More…

hend, hent – To hend is to seize or take; hent is the act of seizing. More…

nullifidian – Someone having no faith or religion; a disbeliever. More…

apostasy – Abandonment or renunciation of one’s religion or morals. More…

renegade – First referred to a person who abandons one religion for another. More…

secular – Has a root meaning of “temporal”—opposed to the eternity of the church—and means “not connected to a religion.” More…

barathrum – A bottomless pit or hell. More…

fire and brimstone – Eternal punishment in hell (from Genesis 19:24 and Revelation 19:20). More…

pandemonium – Literally means abode of all demons (or hell), from Greek pan-, “all,” and daimon, “demon(s).” More…

hell – The Indo-European root meant “covered or concealed,” as hell is supposedly hidden in the dark regions near the Earth’s center. More…

abdicate – Implies a giving up of sovereign power or the evasion of responsibility (as a parent). More…

half blood – Relationship through only one parent. More…

in loco parentis – Latin for “in the place of a parent.” More…

patrial – Means having the right to live in the UK through the British birth of a parent or grandparent. More…

factlet – A piece of trivia. More…

inconsequentia – Trifling facts or trivia. More…

nugae – Trifles or trivia. More…

trivia – Derives from Latin tri, “three” and via, “ways.” In Roman times, at the intersection of any three streets were kiosks where information was posted for travelers, but which was totally ignored by the citizens—a possible source of its modern meaning; trivia is actually plural and should take “these” instead of “this” (etc.). More…

cord – An amount of wood containing 128 cubic feet (4x4x8 feet); the name comes from the old practice of measuring a stack of firewood with a cord of a certain length. To cord is to stack or put up wood in cords. More…

drosometer – An instrument for measuring the amount of dew on a surface. More…

isometric – From Latin isus, “equal,” and -metria, “measuring.” More…

Mach – The scale measuring the speed of an object or fluid relative to the speed of sound is named for philosopher/physicist Ernst Mach (1838-1916), who researched thermodynamics; Mach is the ratio of the speed of something to the speed of sound in the surrounding medium. More…

currant – Developed from Middle English raison of Corauntz, “a raisin of Corinth,” from where the fruit came. More…

figgy pudding – From the dialect term fig, which meant “raisin.” More…

frail – Fifty pounds of raisins. More…

passulate – To dry grapes to make raisins, from Latin passula, “raisins.” More…