Word of the Day

Capoeira “a Brazilian dance form incorporating martial arts elements” is a loanword from Brazilian Portuguese that is of uncertain origin. One hypothesis is that capoeira is one and the same as capoeira “cultivated area that has reverted to forest,” with the change in definition because of the dance form’s origins in gatherings among people living in rural areas. If true, this would make capoeira a derivative of the words kaá “forest, scrub” and puera “that once was” in Tupi, a language once spoken in what is now northern Brazil. Alternatively, instead of a connection to Tupi, capoeira may come from kapwila “a blow, beating” in Mbundu, a Bantu language of southern Angola. Capoeira was first recorded in English in the late 1920s.

Ubi sunt “a poetic motif emphasizing the transitory nature of life” is a borrowing from the Medieval Latin phrase ubi sunt (quī ante nōs fuērunt) “where are (those who were before us).” The modern Romance equivalents of Latin ubi sunt “where are” include French où sont and Italian dove sono, with où and dove descended from ubi “where” and sont and sono derived from sunt “(they) are.” The translations of Latin ubi sunt in Portuguese and Spanish are onde estão and dónde están; the differences here are because onde and dónde descend instead from Latin unde “from where” while both Portuguese and Spanish use estar (from Latin stāre “to stand”) to mean “to be'' when indicating location or state. Ubi sunt was first recorded in English in the early 1910s.

Jubilant “showing great joy” comes from the Latin verb jūbilāre “to shout for joy, whoop.” Though the origin of jūbilāre is uncertain, the most popular hypothesis is that the word is based on an ancient Indo-European exclamation of joy resembling “yu” (compare Ancient Greek iūgḗ “howling”), perhaps on the pattern of sībilāre “to hiss,” as in sibilant, which describes consonants such as s and z. Despite the similar spelling, jubilant is not related to the noun jubilee “the celebration of an anniversary”; instead, jubilee, from Latin jūbilaeus, was adapted from Ancient Greek iōbēlaîos, with the vowel changes because of the influence of jūbilāre. While jubilant appears to be of Indo-European origin, jubilee ultimately derives from Hebrew yōbhēl “ram, ram's horn, trumpet.” Jubilant was first recorded in English in the 1660s.

Patronymic “a name derived from the name of a male ancestor” is an adaptation of the Ancient Greek term patrōnymikós “named after one’s father,” which is equivalent to patḗr (stem patr-) “father” and -ōnymos “having the kind of name specified,” plus the adjectival suffix -ikos. The female equivalent of patronymic is the recent Word of the Day metronymic (also spelled matronymic by analogy with Latin mater “mother”). Patronymics in English typically contain the suffix -son, as in Jackson or Johnson, while similar suffixes like -sen and -sson appear in Germanic languages such as German and Icelandic. Meanwhile, Irish and Scottish Gaelic use Mac- (often anglicized as Mc-), as in MacDonald and McIver, though the Anglo-Norman element Fitz- (ultimately from Latin filius “son”), as in Fitzgerald and Fitzsimmons, appears as well. Portuguese and Spanish respectively feature -es and -ez, as in Gonzales and López, which come from the Latin possessive ending -is “of.” Patronymic was first recorded in English circa 1610.

Ghibli “a hot wind of the North African desert” is a loanword from Libyan Arabic gibli “south wind,” which is equivalent to standard Arabic qiblī (alternatively translated as qibliyy) “southern.” The reason for the h in ghibli is because of Italian, which borrowed ghibli from Arabic; because g before e or i is pronounced like “j” in Italian, an h is added to preserve the hard “g” sound. Despite the presence of the h, when visionary animator and director Hayao Miyazaki borrowed the name for his film studio, Studio Ghibli, he transliterated the name into Japanese as Jiburi. Ghibli was first recorded in English in the early 19th century.