Word of the Day

Repristinate, “to restore to the first or original state or condition,” is formed from the adjective pristine, with the prefix re-, “back, again,” and the suffix -ate. Pristine comes from Latin pristinus, “early,” which belongs to a small family of Latin words relating to coming before something. Words in this family include prae (“before”), prior and prius (“former,” literally “more before”), and prīmus (“first,” literally “most before”). To see these Latin roots in action today, check out the Words of the Day prefatory, preternatural, and primaveral. Repristinate was first recorded in English in the 1650s. EXAMPLE OF REPRISTINATE USED IN A SENTENCE In an effort to attract wildlife, the environmentalists began repristinating the park, bulldozing buildings and planting trees to remove the impact of humans.

Tenacious, “not easily pulled asunder; tough,” is based on the noun tenacity and the suffix -ous, “full of.” Tenacity comes from Latin tenāx (stem tenāc-), “holding fast,” from the verb tenēre, “to hold.” Tenēre has three common stems in English: ten- (as in lieutenant, tenable, and tenor) and -tin- (as in continue and retinue) as well as -tain (as in abstain, attain, and maintain) by way of French. Tenacious was first recorded in English circa 1605. EXAMPLE OF TENACIOUS USED IN A SENTENCE The team remained tenacious even as their rivals came closer and closer to winning the game.

Peri, “a fairylike being of Persian mythology,” comes from Persian parī, “fairy,” which evolved from pairikā, “witch,” in Avestan, a long-extinct language of southwestern Asia. Though p in most Indo-European languages tends to correspond to English f, peri is not related to fairy, which derives by way of Old French from Latin. However, it is interesting to note that, just as peri evolved in sense from “witch” to “fairy,” an earlier sense of fairy in Old French was “enchantment, witchcraft.” Peri was first recorded in English in the 1770s. EXAMPLE OF PERI USED IN A SENTENCE It caught his breath to see the peri slowly descending from the air, floating on its feathered wings.

Rabble-rouse, “to stir up the public’s emotions,” is a back formation from rabble-rouser, which is a compound of the noun rabble, “a disorderly crowd,” and the verb rouse, “to stir to anger.” Rabble is of uncertain origin, but it may be related to Middle Dutch rabbelen, “to speak hurriedly.” An earlier sense of rouse was “to shake the feathers” and referred to hawks, and while the origin of rouse is equally uncertain, one hypothesis is a connection to Latin recūsāre, meaning “to demur, object,” which is the source of English recuse. Rabble-rouse was first recorded in English in the late 1950s. EXAMPLE OF RABBLE-ROUSE USED IN A SENTENCE Though at first its organizers were accused of mere rabble-rousing, the civil rights march evolved into a widely-celebrated parade.

Retcon, “to later revise (an established element of a fictional story),” is a shortening based on the first syllables in retroactive continuity. This type of shortening is called syllabic abbreviation, and other common examples in English include fro-yo (from frozen yogurt), hazmat (from hazardous material), and sitcom (from situation comedy). Ultimately, retroactive is from Latin retrō, “back, backward,” combined with agere (past participle stem āct-), “to do,” while continuity is formed from Latin con-, “with, together,” combined with tenēre (combining stem tin-), “to hold.” Retcon was first recorded in the early 1980s. EXAMPLE OF RETCON USED IN A SENTENCE Though the first season showed the doctor naming the family spaceship after her favorite Norse god, later seasons retconned this and gave all the ships that same name.