Word of the Day

Gens du monde “people of the world” is a borrowing from French comprising gens “people,” du “of the,” and monde “world.” Gens is a plural noun that comes from Latin gēns (stem gent-) “clan, nation, race,” which is also the source of gendarme, genteel, gentile, and gentle. The singular form of gens is gent, but only the plural gens is used in modern French; for perpetual plurals in modern English, compare binoculars, clothes, contents, jeans, outskirts, scissors, thanks, and trousers. French monde comes from Latin mundus, which originally meant “clean” before expanding to mean “elegant, decorated,” then “ornament, implement,” and finally “the heavens, world.” Gens du monde was first recorded in English at the turn of the 19th century.

Ailurophile “a person who likes cats'' is a compound of two Ancient Greek-origin combining forms: ailuro- “cat” and -phile “lover of, enthusiast for.” Ailuro- comes from Ancient Greek aílouros “cat,” which is of uncertain origin, but a popular explanation is that it is based on aiólos “fickle, changeful” (compare aeolo-, as in aeolotropic) and ourá “tail” (compare uro-, as in uropod). The word aiólos also gives rise to the name Aeolus, the ruler of the winds in Greek mythology, and past Word of the Day aeolian “of or caused by the wind,” but it is not related to the combining form aero- “air.” Take care not to confuse uro- “tail” with uro- “urine,” which comes from Ancient Greek oûron. Despite the similar spelling, there does not appear to be any deeper connection between the two forms. Ailurophile was first recorded in English in the late 1920s.

Perse “of a very deep shade of blue or purple,” despite the similar spelling, is not related to per se “by itself” or purse “handbag.” Instead, perse comes from Latin perseus “kind of blue,” which does not come from Perseus, the Ancient Greek hero, but rather likely derives from Persicus “Persian.” The connection here is that fabrics containing the hue in question were imported from the Middle East. Perse is far from the only color named after an Asian country; compare turquoise, after Turkey, and indigo, after India. A fruity word with the same origin as perse is peach, which comes by way of French and Latin from Ancient Greek mêlon persikón “Persian apple.” Perse was first recorded in English in the mid-14th century.

Ukiyo-e “a style of painting that depicts leisure activities” is equivalent to ukiyo “transitory world, floating world” combined with e (also we) “picture.” Ukiyo itself is formed from uki “floating” and yo “world,” while e is also found in emoji, which literally means “picture character, pictograph.” E is a borrowing from Middle Chinese and therefore has cognates in modern Chinese, including Mandarin huì and Cantonese kui “to draw.” The hyphen in ukiyo-e is merely to prevent readers from mispronouncing the yo-e portion as a single syllable, “yoh,” instead of as the correct “yoh-ey”; other transliterations include ukiyoe, ukiyoé, and ukiyo-we. Ukiyo-e was first recorded in English in the late 1890s.

Wizen “to wither” comes from Old English wisnian, of the same meaning. Despite the similar spelling, wizen is not related to wise or wizard—though many wizards are certainly both wise and wizened. Wise is also of Old English origin (spelled as wīs) and is closely related to wisdom and wit. All three of these words come from an ancient Proto-Indo-European root meaning “to see, know” that is also the source of Druid (from Celtic), history (from Ancient Greek), Veda (from Sanskrit), and vision (from Latin). Meanwhile, wizard is formed from wise and the noun-forming suffix -ard. Wizen was first recorded in English before the year 900.