Word of the Day

Trinary “consisting of three parts” is equivalent to Latin trīnī “by threes” plus the suffix -ārius “-ary,” on the pattern of binary. Trīnī is an example of a distributive number; while cardinal numbers such as three express amounts and ordinal numbers such as third express place in a series (and, in English, often fractions), distributive numbers such as triply express a quantity at one time. Other types of numbers include adverbial numbers such as thrice, which express a number of times, and multipliers such as triple, which express how many times something is multiplied. Trinary was first recorded in English in the mid-15th century.

Hobbledehoy “an awkward, ungainly youth,” a variant of hoberdyboy (among other spellings), is of unclear origin, and theories abound. The first part of hobbledehoy may stem from hob or hoberd, which are forms of Robert. The change from Robert to hob or hoberd is typical of rhyming in English name formation; just as Robert has the nickname Bob and is the source of surnames such as Dobbs and Hopkins, William has the nickname Bill and is the source of the surname Gilliam. Similar to the term hobgoblin, the hob element in hobbledehoy is a dialectal English term for “elf” that may be a variant of Robin (a diminutive of Robert), as in Robin Goodfellow, a folkloric fairy also known as Puck. Hobbledehoy was first recorded in English in the 1530s.

Inspirit “to infuse life into” is a compound of the prefix in- and the noun spirit, the latter of which comes from Latin spīritus, which originally meant “a breathing.” Spīritus is based on the Latin verb spīrāre “to breathe,” much like how Ancient Greek psȳ́chein “to breathe, blow” is the source of psȳchḗ “a breath” and, from there, English psyche “the human soul, spirit, or mind.” Spīrāre (stem spīr-) gives rise to the English terms perspire, respiration, and even expire, and the verb can be found in the motto of the state of South Carolina: dum spīrō, spērō “while I breathe, I hope.” Inspirit was first recorded in English circa 1605.

Voltaic “pertaining to electric currents” is the namesake of Alessandro Volta (1745–1827), an Italian physicist who experimented with electricity and is credited with inventing the battery. The Italian surname Volta has multiple possible origins, though many of the most popular hypotheses all circle back to the noun volta “turn; vault.” The noun volta ultimately comes from the Latin verb volvere “to roll, wrap,” which is the source of the elements containing vol- in evolution, involve, revolt, and volume. Another option is that the surname Volta derives from volpe “fox,” from Latin vulpēs. Voltaic was first recorded in English circa 1810.

Monsoon “rainy season” is a borrowing by way of obsolete Dutch monssoen from Portuguese monção (earlier moução), and prior to Portuguese, the term arose as Arabic mawsim “season.” Mawsim is a noun formed from the verb wasama “to mark,” which comes from an ancient Semitic root meaning “to become fitting.” This root also appears in Sivan, a month of the Jewish calendar that tends to overlap with May and June. Sivan (Hebrew sīwān) is adapted from the Akkadian word for “season,” so the similarity between Sivan and English season is merely a happy coincidence. Monsoon was first recorded in English circa 1580.