Word of the Day

Hauteur “arrogance” is a direct borrowing from French, in which it means “height.” Though hauteur and height resemble each other, they are not related; hauteur, from the French adjective haut “high,” comes from Latin altus, while height is equivalent to high plus -th (as in birth and warmth) in Old English. A close relative of English high in Frankish, another Germanic language, is hōh, and because of the influence of Frankish on the French language, the h from Frankish hōh influenced the spelling of French haut. Hauteur was first recorded in English in the 1620s. EXAMPLE OF HAUTEUR USED IN A SENTENCE When around larger canines, miniature dogs often display aggression and hauteur far beyond what their small stature would suggest is possible—or wise.

Deglutition comes by way of French from the Latin verb glūtīre, “to swallow.” Of a similar origin is glutton, “a person who eats excessively,” while the related Latin noun gula, “throat,” is the source of gullet and perhaps beagle—yes, the breed of dog. Despite the similar spelling, deglutition is not related to gluteus (a muscle), which comes from Greek rather than Latin, or to gluten, which comes from the Latin word for “glue.” Deglutition was first recorded in English in the 1640s. EXAMPLE OF DEGLUTITION USED IN A SENTENCE If you don’t drink some water before eating peanut butter, its sticky consistency may make deglutition rather challenging.

Androsphinx, “a sphinx with the head of a man,” is a compound of andro-, “man,” and sphinx, the mythical riddle-posing creature composed of a woman’s head, a lion’s body, and a bird’s wings. Andro- comes from Ancient Greek anḗr, “man,” which is the source of the names Alexander, Andromeda, and Cassandra. Sphinx comes from Ancient Greek sphínx, which is based on the verb sphíngein, “to hold tight,” perhaps after a sphinx’s storied tendency to strangle the poor souls who could not solve its riddles. The female equivalent of androsphinx should be “gynecosphinx” for etymological reasons, though numerous sources use the not-quite-yet-standardized “gynosphinx” instead. Androsphinx was first recorded in English in the first decade of the 17th century. EXAMPLE OF ANDROSPHINX USED IN A SENTENCE Though the sphinx in the Greek myth of Oedipus was a winged female, the Great Sphinx of Giza is a wingless androsphinx.

Dwy, “a gusty flurry,” is used in the Newfoundland dialect of English, and it may be linked originally to dwyes, “eddies,” in the dialect of the Isle of Wight (off the coast of southern England) or twy, “coastal squall,” in the dialects of Hampshire and Wiltshire (in southern England). Newfoundland is well known for its unique variety of English, which exhibits heavy influence from the English dialects of southern/southwestern England, southeastern Ireland, and both Highland and Lowland Scotland, despite its location in Atlantic Canada, because of longtime immigration from those regions. Dwy was first recorded in English in the early 1860s. EXAMPLE OF DWY USED IN A SENTENCE The lighthouse keeper knew that she had to prepare for the dwies of winter.

Momentous, “of great or far-reaching importance or consequence,” is based on the noun moment and the adjective-forming suffix -ous. Moment comes from Latin mōmentum, literally meaning “motion” and figuratively signifying an influential element, such as a point in time. The mō- element of mōmentum comes from the verb movēre, “to move.” Movēre is the direct source of move, while its stem mōt- is found in motion and motor, and mō- also appears in mobile. Momentous was first recorded in English circa 1650. EXAMPLE OF MOMENTOUS USED IN A SENTENCE Serena Williams has achieved many momentous wins in her historic career, including a record setting number of Grand Slam titles. For another momentous word, find out what we chose as the 2022 Word Of The Year!