Word of the Day
esculent
adjective
suitable for use as food; edible.
More about esculent
Esculent “suitable for use as food” comes from Latin ēsculentus “edible, full of food,” which is equivalent to ēsca “food” plus -ulentus, an adjective-forming suffix roughly meaning “full of.” The element -ulent also appears in fraudulent (literally “full of deceit”) and opulent (“full of wealth”). Latin ēsca is derived from the verb edere “to eat,” which has two stems: ed-, as in edible (literally “eatable”), and es-, as in comestible (“eat up-able”). Esculent was first recorded in English circa 1620.
EXAMPLE OF ESCULENT USED IN A SENTENCE
They planned to bring a succulent salad made from a range of esculent greens they had foraged.
More about brume
Brume, “mist or fog,” is a borrowing from French and comes via Provençal bruma from Latin brūma, “winter, winter solstice.” Brūma is ultimately a contraction of brevissima (diēs), “shortest (day),” which is the superlative of brevis, “short.” Brevis is the source of abbreviate and brevity as well as (by way of French) abridge and brief. In Latin, the superlative forms are often marked with -issimus; compare Italian bravissimo and generalissimo. Brume was first recorded in English in the first decade of the 19th century.
EXAMPLE OF BRUME USED IN A SENTENCE
With excellent timing, a brume arose from the sea on the solstice and spread inland, all as if to signal that winter had come.
posole
noun
a thick, stewlike soup of pork or chicken, hominy, mild chile peppers, and cilantro.
More about posole
Posole, “a soup of meat, hominy, mild chile peppers, and cilantro,” is a loanword from Mexican Spanish, in which it is also spelled pozole. Because of a phonological phenomenon called seseo, while c and z are pronounced in most dialects of European Spanish as “thuh,” they have merged with s in Latin American Spanish and become “suh.” Pozole comes from pozolli “hominy, maize-based stew” in Nahuatl, which only uses c and z, not s, to indicate the “suh” sound. Posole was first recorded in English in the 1690s. Learn more words of Nahuatl origin in English.
EXAMPLE OF POSOLE USED IN A SENTENCE
He prepared a large pot of posole, which he knew would help cure the post-holiday hangover.