Word of the Day

Muffuletta “a thick, round deli sandwich from New Orleans” comes from the Sicilian dialect of Italian, perhaps from standard Italian muffola “mitten.” Muffola, in turn, likely comes by way of French moufle from Medieval Latin muffula “thick glove,” which appears to also be the source of camouflage. One possible source of muffula is a compound of two Germanic roots—one meaning “sleeve, something folded” (compare English moue or mow “a pouting grimace”) and the other meaning “skin” (compare English fell “the skin of an animal). Muffuletta was first recorded in English in the late 1960s, though the sandwich itself appears to date to the early 20th century.

Xocolatophobia “fear of chocolate” is a compound of Nahuatl chocolātl “a drink made from ground, roasted cocoa beans” and the combining form -phobia. The tradition for naming phobias is to use the Ancient Greek translation of the feared word, but because chocolate does not translate into Ancient Greek, the Nahuatl source is used instead. Chocolate comes via Spanish from chocolātl, with the final -tl in Nahuatl replaced with Spanish -te for easier pronunciation; compare Spanish coyote “coyote” and tomate “tomato,” from Nahuatl coyōtl and tomatl. The spelling of xocolatophobia with x instead of ch likely stems from the popular—if unproven—hypothesis that chocolātl comes from Nahuatl xococ “bitter” and ātl “water.” Xocolatophobia was first recorded in English in the late 2000s.

Selenography “the branch of astronomy that charts the moon’s surface” is a compound of seleno- and -graphy. The former comes from Ancient Greek selḗnē “moon,” while the latter ultimately comes from Ancient Greek graphḗ “writing.” The noun selḗnē is also the source of Selene, the moon goddess, and comes from sélas “shine,” plus the noun-forming suffix -nē, making selḗnē literally mean “shinier, lighter.” A similar formation appears in Latin with lūna “moon,” contracted from the root luc- “light” and the suffix -na. Take care not to confuse Selene with the name Celine, from either Latin Caelina (from caelum “heaven”) or French Marceline (from Latin Marcus). Selenography was first recorded in English in the 1640s.

Gallantly “in a courageous way” is a compound of the adjective gallant and the adverb-forming suffix -ly. The -ant element in gallant is a telltale sign of the word’s origin; -ant is a common marker appearing in both French and Latin that shows that a word was originally a present participle. Just as tenant means “holding” in Middle French and radiant comes from Latin radiāns “shining,” gallant was the Old French present participle, meaning “amusing oneself,” of the verb galer “to amuse oneself, make merry.” Because of the sound change from w to g (or gu) when French borrowed Germanic words (usually from Frankish), gallant is a distant relative of English wealth, well, and will. For another example of this w/g contrast, compare the recent Word of the Day guerdon. Gallantly was first recorded in English in the mid-16th century.

Hadron “an elementary particle subject to the strong nuclear force” is a coinage based on Ancient Greek hadrós “thick, bulky” or “strong, great,” with the suffix -on (clipped from ion). Hadron is not related to the name Hadrian, which comes from a Roman place name that is also the source of Adriatic. Some linguists connect hadrós to Old English sæd “sated, full” or “heavy, weary” (compare modern English sad) on the grounds that Ancient Greek h tends to correspond to English s. If this connection is valid, that also makes hadrós a relative of Latin satis “enough” (found in asset, satiate, and satisfy) and satur “full, well-fed” (found in satire and saturate). Russian physicist Lev Okun created hadron in 1962 as a counterpart of lepton (from Ancient Greek leptós “small, slight”).