Word of the Day
niveous
adjective
resembling snow; snowy.
Why the Museum of Science chose niveous
Snow, or things that are niveous, appear white because they reflect back the entire color spectrum. To learn more about what niveous means, watch this video from award-winning science communicator Maynard Okereke, better known as the Hip Hop M.D.
Learn more fun facts at the Museum of Science.
More about niveous
Niveous comes from the Latin stem niv-, “snow,” which combines with the suffix -eous to form an adjective. Today, niv- survives as French neige, Italian and Portuguese neve, Romanian nea, and Spanish nieve, all meaning “snow.” Niv- is a distant relative of English snow, which has the s- that Latin lost thousands of years ago. Other examples include the English/Latin pairs slack and laxus (“loose”) as well as steer and taurus (“bull”). Niveous was first recorded in English around 1620.
EXAMPLE OF NIVEOUS USED IN A SENTENCE
With the previous day’s blizzard finally past, the children headed outside for an afternoon of frivolous play in their now niveous neighborhood.
bobèche
noun
a slightly cupped ring placed over the socket of a candleholder to catch the drippings of a candle.
More about bobèche
Bobèche, “a cupped ring that catches a candle’s drippings,” comes from French but is of uncertain origin. With that said, linguists have one prevailing hypothesis. The bob- part may be the same as the first element in Middle French bobine, “skein of thread,” which is the source of English bobbin. The -èche element could be based on an analogy with flammèche, “spark,” which comes from Old High German falawiska, “hot ashes.” Bobèche was first recorded in English in the late 1890s.
EXAMPLE OF BOBÈCHE USED IN A SENTENCE
Without a bobèche available, they carried the lit candles very carefully, dodging scalding drips of hot wax.
shammes
noun
the candle used to kindle the candles in the Hanukkah menorah.
More about shammes
Shammes, “the candle used to kindle the candles in the Hanukkah menorah,” is a borrowing of Yiddish shames, which comes from Hebrew shammāsh, “server, attendant.” As we learned from the Word of the Day cherubic, many Hebrew nouns add -im to become plural, which is why one shammāsh in Hebrew becomes multiple shammāshim and one shammes in English becomes multiple shammosim. Though Hebrew shammāsh is easily confused with Shamash, an Assyrian and Babylonian sun god, the two are not related; while Shamash comes from a Semitic root meaning “sun,” shammāsh appears to come from Egyptian šmsw, “follower, servant.” Shammes was first recorded in English in the late 1940s.
EXAMPLE OF SHAMMES USED IN A SENTENCE
She had the honor of lighting the shammes and the first candle on the first night of Hanukkah.