Word of the Day
andante
adjective
moderately slow and even.
More about andante
Andante “moderately slow and even” is a loanword from Italian, in which it literally means “walking” and is the present participle of the verb andare “to walk, go.” From here, the history becomes somewhat murky. Romance languages merged several roots in a process called suppletion to create their verbs meaning “to go”—similar to English with be (and am, are, was)—but what roots were merged remains a matter of debate. With andante, there are two proposals: a derivation from a lost Vulgar Latin verb such as ambitare “to go in circular motion” or an origin in the Gaulish root andā-, the latter of which is related to Latin passus “step.” Andante was first recorded in English circa 1740.
how is andante used?
The Haydn symphony is the one with the limpid little andante second movement, which some feel is insufficiently important for a Haydn slow movement, but which to my ear touches the ultimate in perennial simplicity and freshness.
She lived among her own things like a visitor to a room kept “exactly as it was when.” She tiptoed, even when she went to draw a bath, nervous and andante. She stopped, fluttering and febrile, before every object in her house.
menology
noun
a record or account arranged in the order of a calendar.
More about menology
Don’t be fooled! Menology is not a half-Greek term meaning “the study of men.” Instead, menology “a record or account arranged in the order of a calendar” comes from Late Greek mēnológion, from Ancient Greek mḗn “month” and -lógion, a derivative of lógos “a word, saying, speech.” The word mḗn is a distant relative of Latin mensis and English month, and all three come from the same root as English moon (and Monday) and menstrual “monthly.” Menology was first recorded in English circa 1605.
how is menology used?
The menologies form a small but distinct group of texts and follow a pattern broadly comparable to Hesiod’s Works and Days, though with much heavier cultic content. For each month, information is given relating to astronomical, religious, social, and other themes such as the expected appearance of a particular migratory bird.
[M]enologies were, in general, meant to deal with every aspect of daily life, and their content was intended for the common people. Time had its own magic in Mesopotamia, with some texts only listing favorable and unfavorable days.
juku
noun
a school, attended in addition to one's regular school, where students prepare for college entrance examinations.
More about juku
Juku “a school where students prepare for college entrance examinations” is a borrowing from Japanese. In its native language, juku means “private tutoring school” or “cram school” and is a term borrowed from Middle Chinese, in which it once meant “gate room.” Because juku is of Chinese origin, we can see the clear resemblance today between juku and Mandarin shú or Cantonese suk. Juku was first recorded in English in the early 1980s.
how is juku used?
The result is another kind of “exam hell” for these young children: To prepare, many attend juku, or cram schools, a process that requires a huge investment of time and often costs far more than all but the highest echelons of Japanese socioeconomic ladder can afford.