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.
a tidal bore or flood.
Despite the similar spelling and identical pronunciation, the noun eagre “a tidal bore” is not related to the adjective eager “keen in desire.” While the adjective eager ultimately comes from Latin ācer “sharp,” the noun eagre (also agar, higre, hyger) has a peculiar and disputed history, with multiple competing ideas about its origin. It is possible that eagre somehow comes from Old English ēgor “flood” or Old Norse ægir “sea,” both of which are also of unclear derivation but may share a source with English island (from Old English īeg) and Latin aqua “water.” Eagre was first recorded in English in the 1640s.
to foretell or predict.
Vaticinate “to foretell or predict” comes from Latin vāticinārī “to prophesy,” which is equivalent to vātēs “seer” and -cin-, a combining form of canere “to sing.” It is uncertain whether vātēs is the source of Vatican, but it is clear that vātēs is distantly related to Odin (from Old Norse) and Woden (from Old English, the namesake of Wednesday), who were the gods of wisdom and magic. Canere (stem cant-) is also the source of the recent Words of the Day cantillate and descant. In Latin, a often becomes i when stems are combined with prefixes to make new words; this is also how the stem cap- “to take” is the source of incipient (literally “taking in”) and principal (“first taker”). Vaticinate was first recorded in English circa 1620.
(from a point of view at the center of the spiral) rising spirally in a counterclockwise manner, as a stem.
Sinistrorse “rising spirally in a counterclockwise manner” comes from Latin sinistrōrsus “turned leftwards,” which is a contraction of sinister “left” and versus “turned.” Perhaps because of avoidance of taboo words, although Latin sinister survives today as Italian sinistro, most Romance languages replaced their “left” words with borrowings from other languages. Portuguese esquerdo and Spanish izquierdo are either borrowed from Basque ezker “left” or derived from a pre-Indo-European language of the Iberian peninsula. Meanwhile, French gauche comes from a Germanic-origin verb meaning “to turn, veer.” Sinistrorse was first recorded in English in the late 1850s.
caused by the diagnosis, manner, or treatment of a physician.
Iatrogenic “caused by the treatment of a physician” is a compound based on the Ancient Greek-origin combining forms iatro- “doctor, healer, medicine” and -genic “producing or causing.” Iatro- comes from Ancient Greek iātrós “healer,” from iâsthai “to heal,” which is also the source of geriatric, pediatrician, psychiatry, and the name Jason. The element -genic comes from Ancient Greek -genēs “born, produced,” which is also the source of cosmogenic, hallucinogenic, and the name Eugene. Iatrogenic was first recorded in English in the early 1920s.
of, relating to, or characteristic of the rock-'n'-roll music, fashions, entertainment, etc., of the 1960s, especially in France.
Yé-yé “of the French rock-’n’-roll culture of the 1960s” is a borrowing from French that, in turn, is adapted from English yeah-yeah. Yeah is a variant of either yea or yes; yea (pronounced as “yey”) comes from Old English gēa “so,” while yes is a compound of gēa and Old English sī “be it.” A similar shift in meaning happened in some Romance languages, with Latin sīc “so” becoming Portuguese sim and Spanish sí “yes.” The process of a borrowed word getting borrowed back into its language of origin is called reborrowing, and another well-known example is how English animation was adapted in Japanese as anime, which was itself borrowed back into English as anime. Yé-yé was first recorded in English in the early 1960s.
