Word of the Day

Obelize, “to mark with a symbol to point out concerning text,” comes from Ancient Greek obelízein, which is equivalent to obelós plus the verb-forming suffix -izein, “-ize.” Obelós means “spit, pointed pillar,” and the latter definition might ring a bell because it is this sense that appears in English obelisk. The term obelós is, unfortunately, of uncertain origin, but despite the common association between obelisks and ancient Egypt, obelós does not appear to be of Egyptian origin. Instead, the substantial variation in the spelling of obelós across multiple dialects of Ancient Greek suggests that the word is of mysterious pre-Greek origin, similar to the recent Words of the Day bibliophile, feijoada, and porphyry. Obelize was first recorded in English circa 1610.

Diglot “containing similar information in two different languages” comes from Ancient Greek díglōttos, which is equivalent to di- “twice, double” and -glōttos, a derivative of glôssa (also glôtta) “tongue.” In this way, diglot is the Ancient Greek-origin equivalent of bilingual, from Latin bi- “twice” and lingua “tongue.” While di- and bi- are distantly related, as we learned from the Word of the Day diphthongize, glôssa is not related to lingua. Instead, glôssa is the source of glossary, glottal, and the Word of the Day polyglot, and its resemblance to gloss “a superficial luster or shine” is merely coincidental. Diglot was first recorded in English in the early 1860s.

Rizzar, “to dry meat in the sun,” is of uncertain origin but appears to come from obsolete French ressoré “sun-dried.” From here, the trail grows even colder, though there are two potential routes to the true origin of rizzar. One proposal is that ressoré comes from saurer (earlier sorer) “to smoke, to dry with smoke,” from the adjective saur “salted and smoked, dried,” which appears to be a relative of English sear and sere; see the recent Word of the Day ratoon for more. Another proposal links ressoré to essorer “to dry in the air,” itself ultimately thought to come from Latin ex “out of, from” combined with aura “breath (of air), breeze.” Rizzar was first recorded in English at the turn of the 19th century.

Opalesce, “to exhibit colors like that of an opal,” is based on opal, the multicolored gemstone, and the verb-forming suffix -esce. Opal comes via Latin from Ancient Greek opállios “gem,” and while not certain, a common hypothesis is that opállios comes from Sanskrit upala- “stone, precious stone.” As we learned from the recent Words of the Day evanesce, rufescent, and violescent, the element -esce (as well as its noun and adjective counterparts -escence and -escent) derives from the inceptive infix -sc-, which roughly translates to “become, begin to be” in Latin. Opalesce was first recorded in English in the 1810s. Opal and tourmaline are two birthstones associated with the month of October. Find out more about the birthstones that make each month sparkle.

Frondescence comes from a Latin verb meaning “to become leafy, put forth leaves,” which is based on the word for “branch, bough” that also gives us frond. An easily confused word is the Latin word frōns, meaning “forehead,” which is the source of front, frontage, and frontal. Frondescence was first recorded in English circa 1840. EXAMPLE OF FRONDESCENCE USED IN A SENTENCE When autumn sets in and the leaves shift colors, a rainbow of frondescence can be seen far and wide. FUN FACT ABOUT FRONDESCENCE Leaves already contain the yellow and orange pigments we see emerge in Fall. They are just hidden most of the year by the overwhelming green of chlorophyll. Learn more fun facts at the Museum of Science.