Word of the Day

Rejuvenate, “to restore to a former state,” is based on Latin juvenis, “young," with re- indicating “again” or “back.” Juvenis is also the source of juvenile, and through contraction of the -uve- into -ū-, its comparative form is the easily recognizable jūnior, “younger.” Though this change from -uve- to -ū- may seem a little odd, a similar phenomenon happened in English, with Old English geoguth becoming modern English youth, a distant relative of juvenis. Rejuvenate was first recorded in English at the turn of the 19th century. EXAMPLE OF REJUVENATE USED IN A SENTENCE The construction workers rejuvenated the abandoned house, repairing its windows and laying down new floors.

Vaudevillian, “of or relating to theatrical entertainment consisting of various performances,” is the adjectival form of the noun vaudeville, a loanword from French. One possible origin for vaudeville is as an abbreviated alteration of Middle French (chanson du) vau de Vire, “(song of the) vale of Vire,” a valley in Normandy, France, noted for satirical folk songs. Another possibility is from dialectal French vauder, “to go,” and virer, “to turn”; vauder could derive from Latin vādere, “to go,” as we touched on with the Word of the Day laisser-aller. Vaudevillian was first recorded in English in the late 1920s. EXAMPLE OF VAUDEVILLIAN USED IN A SENTENCE While he preferred performing Shakespeare, the masked man revealed that he had made his start as a vaudevillian actor.

Ignescent comes from the Latin verb ignēscere, “to catch fire,” from the noun ignis, “fire.” Ignis is the source of several fire-related words in English, including igneous, ignite, and ignition. Because Latin and Sanskrit, a classical language of India, are distantly related, Latin ignis closely resembles Sanskrit Agni, the name of the Hindu god of fire. Ignescent was first recorded in English in the 1820s. EXAMPLE OF IGNESCENT USED IN A SENTENCE With the dark night sky as a backdrop, the New Year's Eve fireworks show was brilliantly ignescent.

Smaragdine, “emerald-green in color,” comes via Latin smaragdus from Ancient Greek smáragdos, “emerald,” which may derive either by way of Sanskrit or directly from a Semitic source akin to Hebrew bāreqeth “gemstone, emerald.” Bāreqeth and its Arabic relative barq, “lightning,” come from a Semitic root roughly meaning “to flash, shine.” Because of a variety of regular sound changes, Latin smaragdus evolved into Old French esmeragde (also esmeralde) and was adapted into English as emerald. For fans of Disney or Victor Hugo, this Old French word is also the source of the name Esmeralda. Smaragdine was first recorded in English in the late 14th century. EXAMPLE OF SMARAGDINE USED IN A SENTENCE Because the ink was not yet dry on the drawing of the Emerald City, the artist left a smaragdine smear when he brushed his hand against the page.

Rubricate, “to mark or color with red,” comes from Latin rūbrīca, “red ocher,” which is also the source of English rubric, “any established mode of conduct or procedure.” The shift in definition here is because rubric originally referred in English to a title or heading in a book that was written in red for easy distinction from the rest of the text (in black), and red ocher was ground to produce the pigment once used in red ink. Rūbrīca comes from ruber, which is one of multiple Latin words for “red,” as we learned from the Word of the Day rufescent. Rubricate was first recorded in English in the 1560s. EXAMPLE OF RUBRICATE USED IN A SENTENCE Looking at the old tome through the display case glass, she imagined the scribe who painstakingly rubricated all of the chapter headings.