Word of the Day
Learn a new word every day! The Dictionary.com team of language experts carefully selects each Word of the Day to add some panache to your vocabulary.
an objectionable or undesirable animal, usually predatory, as a coyote or bobcat.
Varmint “an undesirable animal” is a variant of vermin most common today in Southern and Appalachian English. There are two sound changes at play here: vowel backing and excrescence. Vowel backing is when a vowel sound moves farther back in the mouth, as the front/central vowel e in vermin migrates to become the back vowel a in varmint. A similar shift happened with argal (from ergo) and parson (from person). As we learned from the recent Word of the Day enumerate, excrescence is the addition of a consonant, such as the final t in varmint; compare the evolution of Old English thunor into modern English thunder. Despite its association with dialectal American English, varmint was first recorded in English in the 1530s.
the doctrine that the world tends to become better or may be made better by human effort.
Meliorism “the doctrine that the world becomes better by human effort” is based on the Latin adjective melior “better,” which is also the source of the English verb ameliorate “to make or become better” as well as French meilleur, Italian migliore, Portuguese melhor, and Spanish mejor, all meaning “better” or “best,” depending on context. Just as better and best are the comparative and superlative of good even though good is not related to them, Latin melior and optimus “best” correspond to bonus “good.” This use of unrelated words as forms of one another is known as suppletion, as we learned from the recent Words of the Day laisser-aller and jovial. Meliorism was first recorded in English in the late 1850s.
known or understood by very few; mysterious; secret.
Arcane “known by very few” comes by way of Middle French from Latin arcānus “secret, concealed,” from the verb arcēre “to shut up, keep.” Arcēre (stems arc- and erc-) is also the source of coerce and exercise, and it derives from arca “chest, box,” which is the source of ark. Despite the resemblance, arca is not related to arcus “bow, curve,” the latter of which is the ancestor of arc, arcade, arch, and archer. Thanks to Grimm’s law, Latin c tends to correspond to Old English h, and Latin arcus is therefore a distant relative of arrow (from Old English earh). Arcane was first recorded in English in the 1540s.
an architectural band on an outside wall decorated with sculptural representations of people or animals.
Zophorus “an architectural band decorated with animals,” also often spelled zoophorus, comes by way of Latin from Ancient Greek zōiophóros “bearing animals,” a compound of zôion “animal” and -phoros “bearing.” For more on zôion, compare the recent Word of the Day zooid. The element -phoros is the present participle of the verb phérein “to bear,” which is also the source of dysphoria, pheromone, the names Berenice and Christopher, and—far more distantly—the recent Word of the Day auriferous. Zophorus was first recorded in English circa 1560.
in the manner of an air or melody.
Arioso “in the manner of a melody” is a loanword from Italian, in which it means “songlike” and is a compound of aria “air, song” and -oso, an adjective-forming suffix meaning “-like.” Aria comes via Latin āēr from Ancient Greek āḗr “the lower atmosphere,” which is in contrast to aithḗr “the upper air,” the source of ether and ethereal (compare the recent Word of the Day empyrean). Though unconfirmed, āḗr may come from the same root as midair- or wind-related words such as aorta (from aortḗ “something carried”), artery (from artēria “windpipe”), aura (from aúrā “breath”), and meteor (from aeírein “to raise, lift”). Arioso was first recorded in English circa 1740.
