Word of the Day

• Selcouth is an archaic word that appeared in English before 900.
• Selcouth comes from the Old English word seldcūth, which means "seldom couth."
• The couth part derives from an older meaning of couth, "known or acquainted with."
• Literally, selcouth means "seldom known."

• It was very selcouth and unsettling to see the empty streets that night.
• Her voice had a selcouth lilt to it that indicated she might not feel comfortable.

• The buff part of debuff originally comes from buffalo, whose leather was used to polish metal in the 1800s.
• Buff became a verb by 1849, meaning “to polish or shine.”
• A century and a half later, buff was used to describe someone who was physically fit.
• Buff, “strong and muscular,” is what gamers had in mind in the mid-1990s when they began to buff up their characters in role-playing games.
• The opposite of buffing a player is debuffing them, which was first recorded in 2000–05.

• The mage cast a powerful spell to debuff the enemy, reducing their strength and making them easier to defeat.
• The potion she drank debuffed her opponent's defense, giving her an advantage in the battle.

Tea, as dished about in jarrett hill and Tre'vell Anderson's new book, Historically Black Phrases, out now from Ten Speed Press from Penguin Random House: PRONUNCIATION Phonetic. TRANSLATION "Information." USAGE A foundational piece of Black queer language that originated in Black drag culture. Describes potentially unknown or little-known information; it can be obvious or take some discerning. EXAMPLE Ryanne arrived to the after-party late. "What's tea, sis?" she said to her bestie Mika, sensing she's just missed something. "Apparently Simone's boyfriend and side piece are both on their way," Mika whispered.

• Tea may have come from the celebrated drag performer The Lady Chablis, who is quoted in the 1994 bestseller Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil: “Yeah, my T. My thing, my business, what’s goin’ on in my life.” T, here, is short for truth.
• The slang tea may riff on The Lady Chablis’s T as well as on tea parties, at which well-to-do Southern women are popularly imagined to gossip.
• Tea spread thanks in part to RuPaul’s Drag Race starting in 2009. The reality show frequently uses (spilling the) tea for “gossip.”

• While eggcorn is attested as early as the early 19th century, its present sense dates from 2003.
• Eggcorn is a coinage by linguistics professor Geoffrey K. Pullum based on the word acorn, which could be mistaken to be a compound of egg and corn because of acorns’ size and shape.
• Eggcorns tend to reflect common mistakes at the individual level—no matter how widespread these mistakes may be—that do not change the spelling of the mistaken word or phrase.
• Eggcorns are based on logical misunderstandings, so not every misspelling qualifies as an eggcorn.

• After watching the movie, she couldn't help but laugh at the eggcorns he made when trying to quote famous lines.
• As a linguistics enthusiast, he found joy in discovering eggcorns that had permeated everyday language, such as "old wise tale" instead of "old wives' tale."

• Disparate entered English around 1580-90.
• Disparate comes from the Latin word disparātus, meaning "separated."
• The dis- element means "not," while par- comes from the Latin verb parāre, "to prepare, to get ready," which in this case may be influenced in meaning by the Latin word par, "equal."

• separate
• divergent
• incommensurable

• The team members had disparate opinions on how to approach the problem, resulting in a lengthy and impassioned debate.
• The artist's latest exhibition showcased a collection of disparate works of art, each representing a unique perspective on the human experience.