Word of the Day

Philtrum “the vertical groove on the surface of the upper lip” is a Latinized version of Ancient Greek phíltron, of the same meaning. However, phíltron could also mean “love potion,” and it is this sense that is preserved in the English term philter (not to be confused with the unrelated homophone filter, which is of Germanic origin). Phíltron is formed from the adjective phílos (stem phil-) “loving, dear” and the suffix -tron, which—as an instrumental suffix—roughly translates as “thing that does/is used for something.” The stem phil- (also philo-) is the source of dozens of words in English, from philosophy (“love of wisdom”) and philanthropy (“love of humankind”) to Philadelphia (“brotherly love”) and Philip (“love of horses”). Philtrum was first recorded in English in the first decade of the 17th century.

Nubilous “cloudy or foggy” derives from Latin nūbilus “cloudy, overcast,” equivalent to the noun nūbēs “cloud” and the adjectival suffix -ilus. Nūbēs is also, by way of French, the source of English nuance, which originally referred to literal shades and hues. As we learned from last year’s Word of the Day obnubilate, though nūbēs and Latin nebula sound similar and both mean “cloud,” the two words are unrelated; the stark difference between their vowels cannot be explained through regular historical sound changes. Though it is uncertain whether nūbēs has any cognates in English that are of Anglo-Saxon or general Germanic origin, there is a small “cloud”-related rabbit hole that we can explore: the Old Norse word for “cloud” is ský, which—you guessed it—was borrowed into English as sky. Nubilous was first recorded in English circa 1530.

Mise en scène “the process of setting a stage” is a borrowing of a French term with the same meaning that consists of three elements: mise “a putting, setting down,” en “in, on,” and scène “stage.” Mise is both a noun and past participle of the verb mettre “to place, put,” which derives from Latin mittere (perfect stem miss-) “to send,” the source of admit, permit, submit, and their respective noun forms (admission, permission, and submission). Scène derives by way of Latin scaena or scēna “background” from Ancient Greek skēnḗ “booth (where actors dressed).” Although skēnḗ is of uncertain origin, one theory is that it is related to Ancient Greek skiá “shadow,” which would make scène (and, therefore, English scene) a distant cognate of the recent Word of the Day sciamachy. Mise en scène was first recorded in English in the early 1830s.

Waka “a Japanese poem consisting of 31 syllables in 5 lines” is, unsurprisingly, a borrowing from Japanese. In the Japanese language, waka is spelled with two kanji characters: the first, pronounced wa in this context, refers to Japan itself but also still preserves its original meaning of “harmony,” while the second character, pronounced ka in this context, means “song” or “to sing.” The elements wa and ka, like many Japanese words, are both adapted from Middle Chinese; for modern Chinese equivalents, compare Mandarin hé and gē as well as Cantonese wo and go. Though Japanese is a member of the Japonic language family, which also includes the many languages of the Ryukyu Islands, a substantial portion of Japanese vocabulary derives from Middle Chinese. Known as Sino-Japanese words, these terms constitute at least half of modern Japanese vocabulary, though estimates vary. Waka was first recorded in English in the late 1870s.

Verdurous “freshly green” is a compound of the noun verdure “greenness, especially of fresh, flourishing vegetation” and the adjectival suffix -ous. Verdure itself is a compound of Middle French verd “green” (vert in Modern French) and the noun-forming suffix -ure, and the former derives from the Latin adjective viridis “green.” Though viridis is the source of a handful of “green” words in English, such as viridescent “slightly green” and viridian “a bluish-green pigment,” many other “green” words are derived by way of French, from verdant “green with vegetation” and verdigris “a green patina.” While viridis is the best-known and most widely used of the “green” words in Latin, another term, galbinus “greenish-yellow,” evolved into Italian giallo and French jaune “yellow” (compare jaundice “yellow discoloration of the skin”). Verdurous was first recorded in English around the turn of the 17th century.