Word of the Day
More about eagre
Despite the similar spelling and identical pronunciation, the noun eagre “a tidal bore” is not related to the adjective eager “keen in desire.” While the adjective eager ultimately comes from Latin ācer “sharp,” the noun eagre (also agar, higre, hyger) has a peculiar and disputed history, with multiple competing ideas about its origin. It is possible that eagre somehow comes from Old English ēgor “flood” or Old Norse ægir “sea,” both of which are also of unclear derivation but may share a source with English island (from Old English īeg) and Latin aqua “water.” Eagre was first recorded in English in the 1640s.
how is eagre used?
The steamer Silveropolis was sharply and steadily cleaving the broad, placid shallows of the Sacramento River. A large wave like an eagre, diverging from its bow, was extending to either bank, swamping the tules and threatening to submerge the lower levees.
One eagre occasionally runs eight miles inland, up the River Great Ouse to Wiggenhall, where it’s known as the ‘Wiggenhall wave.’ At the distant bend in the river, there was a sudden little shrug on the water’s surface and a crease appeared. Moving slowly but steadily, the crease rolled upstream as the bore pushed its way against the flow.
vaticinate
verb (used with or without object)
to foretell or predict.
More about vaticinate
Vaticinate “to foretell or predict” comes from Latin vāticinārī “to prophesy,” which is equivalent to vātēs “seer” and -cin-, a combining form of canere “to sing.” It is uncertain whether vātēs is the source of Vatican, but it is clear that vātēs is distantly related to Odin (from Old Norse) and Woden (from Old English, the namesake of Wednesday), who were the gods of wisdom and magic. Canere (stem cant-) is also the source of the recent Words of the Day cantillate and descant. In Latin, a often becomes i when stems are combined with prefixes to make new words; this is also how the stem cap- “to take” is the source of incipient (literally “taking in”) and principal (“first taker”). Vaticinate was first recorded in English circa 1620.
how is vaticinate used?
After the same manner, poets, who are under the protection of Apollo, when they are drawing near their latter end do ordinarily become prophets, and by the inspiration of that god sing sweetly in vaticinating things which are to come.
sinistrorse
adjective
(from a point of view at the center of the spiral) rising spirally in a counterclockwise manner, as a stem.
More about sinistrorse
Sinistrorse “rising spirally in a counterclockwise manner” comes from Latin sinistrōrsus “turned leftwards,” which is a contraction of sinister “left” and versus “turned.” Perhaps because of avoidance of taboo words, although Latin sinister survives today as Italian sinistro, most Romance languages replaced their “left” words with borrowings from other languages. Portuguese esquerdo and Spanish izquierdo are either borrowed from Basque ezker “left” or derived from a pre-Indo-European language of the Iberian peninsula. Meanwhile, French gauche comes from a Germanic-origin verb meaning “to turn, veer.” Sinistrorse was first recorded in English in the late 1850s.
how is sinistrorse used?
They walked halfway around the column, and Julie peered up until the fog shrouded it far above. It seemed to extend forever! She turned back to the base and sighted a broad stairway winding its way up the pedestal in sinistrorse fashion, right to left.
His knees buckled and ached when he negotiated the turret’s sinistrorse stone staircase. A sneeze caught him by surprise, and as he put his hand to his thin twig-like nose, another came upon him. His pointed boot slipped off the step causing him to skid down the last few stairs…