Word of the Day
Learn a new word every day! The Dictionary.com team of language experts carefully selects each Word of the Day to add some panache to your vocabulary.
a Malay verse form consisting of an indefinite number of quatrains with the second and fourth lines of each quatrain repeated as the first and third lines of the following one.
Pantoum, “a Malay verse featuring repeated lines,” is a borrowing from French of Malay origin. Malay has two widely used standardized forms: Standard Malay, which is an official language in Malaysia and Singapore, and Indonesian, spoken by about 300 million people in Indonesia. Because Malay is a member of the Austronesian language family, it is distantly related to Hawaiian, Malagasy (in Madagascar), Maori (in New Zealand), and Tagalog (in the Philippines). The Malay source of pantoum is pantun, with the change from n to m because of a printer’s error in 19th-century France. Pantoum was first recorded in English in the early 1880s. EXAMPLE OF PANTOUM USED IN A SENTENCE The regular repetition of lines in pantoums means that poets have to be clever about context and meaning, or readers may find the verses rather stale.
government by the people; a form of government in which the supreme power is vested in the people and exercised directly by them or by their elected agents under a free electoral system.
Democracy, "government by the people," comes from the Middle French noun démocratie, which comes via Latin from Greek dēmokratía, "popular government." Democracy was first recorded in English in the early 1500s.
a formal expression of opinion or choice made by an individual or body of individuals, especially in an election.
Vote, "to express or signify will or choice in a matter," comes from a late Middle English noun that ultimately comes from Latin vōtum “a vow made to a deity; prayer, desire, hope.” Vote was first recorded in English in the late 1400s.
a meteorite or stone held sacred or believed to be of divine origin.
Baetyl, “a sacred meteorite,” comes by way of Latin baetulus from Ancient Greek baítȳlos, “meteoric stone.” Baítȳlos is sometimes hypothesized to be of pre-Greek origin, meaning that it may be a borrowing from a long-lost language of the Mediterranean. However, a far more interesting (and likely) proposal is that baítȳlos comes from a Semitic source such as Hebrew bēth ’ēl (compare bethel) or Phoenician bēt ’l, both of which mean “house of god.” Phoenician bēt, “house,” is the origin of the Ancient Greek letter beta and, by extension, alphabet. Baetyl was first recorded in English in the early 1850s. EXAMPLE OF BAETYL USED IN A SENTENCE Though they may look to us simply like old, rugged stones, baetyls served a central purpose in ancient Mediterranean religions.
a small can or drinking cup.
Cannikin, “a small can or drinking cup,” is adapted from Middle Dutch cannekijn, “little can,” which is equivalent to Middle Dutch canne, “can,” combined with the diminutive suffix -kijn, “little, small.” Canne and English can may be related to Late Latin canna, “small vessel,” which itself may derive from Latin canna, “reed,” but any potential connections among these four words is controversial. The suffix -kijn is the source of English -kin, as in lambkin, and is related to German -chen, as in Gretchen, “little Margareta.” Cannikin was first recorded in English in the 1560s. EXAMPLE OF CANNIKIN USED IN A SENTENCE Minutes after tapping another keg of mead, cannikins and goblets across the dining hall were filled to their brims—and quickly emptied.
