Word of the Day

Mezzaluna, “a crescent-shaped chopping knife,” literally means “half-moon, crescent” in Italian and is a compound of mezza, feminine of mezzo “middle,” and luna “moon” (compare the recent Words of the Day lunisolar and perilune). Mezzo, which is also the source of the loanword mezzanine “the lowest balcony in a theater,” comes from Latin medius “middle,” which is a distant relative and synonym of English middle and Ancient Greek mésos. A common trend is for Latin -cae-, -di-, -te-, and similar combinations before vowels to become -zz- in Italian. Just as medius became mezzo, Latin Nīcaea “Nice” became Italian Nizza, puteus “(water) well” became pozzo, and statiō “standing-place” became stazzo “fold, pen.” Mezzaluna was first recorded in English in the early 1950s.

Areology is based on the Ancient Greek word for Ares, the god of war, plus -logy, which indicates the science or study of a topic. Some linguists have traditionally derived Ares from the Greek word for “damage, disaster, doom,” but others consider the name to come from a lost language once spoken in what is now Greece. Take care not to confuse the god Ares with the constellation Aries, which is unrelated and comes from the Latin word for “ram.” Areology was first recorded in English in the early 1880s.

Evection, “a periodic irregularity in the moon's motion,” comes from Latin ēvectiō (stem ēvectiōn-) “a going upwards, flight.” Ēvectiō is based on the verb ēvehere “to carry forth, move forth,” from ē (or ex) “out of, from, beyond” and vehere “to carry, drag.” Vehere has two common stems in English: veh-, as found in vehement and vehicle, and vect-, as in convection and vector. Distant relatives of vehere in English include way, wagon, weigh, wiggle, and even Norway (literally “north way”). Evection was first recorded in English in the 1650s.

Canicular, “pertaining to Sirius, the Dog Star,” is equivalent to Latin Canīcula “Sirius” plus -āris, an adjective-forming suffix. Canīcula literally means “little dog” and is based on canis “dog,” plus the feminine diminutive suffix -cula (compare English -cle or -cule, as in molecule and particle). Canis survives today as French chien, Italian cane, and Portuguese cão, but Spanish can has declined in favor of perro, of unclear origin. A direct descendant of Canīcula is French canicule “heat wave,” which previously referred to the dog days of summer. This period of the year takes its name in both English and Romance languages from the appearance of Sirius in the northern sky, and the co-occurrence with hot weather gives dog days as well as French canicule their heated sense. Canicular was first recorded in English in the late 14th century.

Apastron, “the point at which binary stars are farthest apart,” is based on Ancient Greek apó “away, off, apart” and ástron “star, constellation.” Apó, which remains apo- in English before most consonants (as in apology) but becomes ap- before vowels and h (as in aphorism). Distant relatives of apó, all featuring a telltale labial (using the lips) consonant, include English after and off, Latin ab “away from,” and Sanskrit ápa “away, off.” Ástron is based on astḗr “star” (compare the recent Words of the Day asterism and astronaut), which is a cognate and synonym of English star and Latin stella (compare the recent Words of the Day circumstellar and stellate). Apastron was first recorded in English in the early 1840s.