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.
to dry or cure meat, fish, etc., especially haddock in the sun.
Rizzar, “to dry meat in the sun,” is of uncertain origin but appears to come from obsolete French ressoré “sun-dried.” From here, the trail grows even colder, though there are two potential routes to the true origin of rizzar. One proposal is that ressoré comes from saurer (earlier sorer) “to smoke, to dry with smoke,” from the adjective saur “salted and smoked, dried,” which appears to be a relative of English sear and sere; see the recent Word of the Day ratoon for more. Another proposal links ressoré to essorer “to dry in the air,” itself ultimately thought to come from Latin ex “out of, from” combined with aura “breath (of air), breeze.” Rizzar was first recorded in English at the turn of the 19th century.
to exhibit a play of colors like that of the iridescent gem opal.
Opalesce, “to exhibit colors like that of an opal,” is based on opal, the multicolored gemstone, and the verb-forming suffix -esce. Opal comes via Latin from Ancient Greek opállios “gem,” and while not certain, a common hypothesis is that opállios comes from Sanskrit upala- “stone, precious stone.” As we learned from the recent Words of the Day evanesce, rufescent, and violescent, the element -esce (as well as its noun and adjective counterparts -escence and -escent) derives from the inceptive infix -sc-, which roughly translates to “become, begin to be” in Latin. Opalesce was first recorded in English in the 1810s. Opal and tourmaline are two birthstones associated with the month of October. Find out more about the birthstones that make each month sparkle.
leafage; foliage.
Frondescence comes from a Latin verb meaning “to become leafy, put forth leaves,” which is based on the word for “branch, bough” that also gives us frond. An easily confused word is the Latin word frōns, meaning “forehead,” which is the source of front, frontage, and frontal. Frondescence was first recorded in English circa 1840. EXAMPLE OF FRONDESCENCE USED IN A SENTENCE When autumn sets in and the leaves shift colors, a rainbow of frondescence can be seen far and wide. FUN FACT ABOUT FRONDESCENCE Leaves already contain the yellow and orange pigments we see emerge in Fall. They are just hidden most of the year by the overwhelming green of chlorophyll. Learn more fun facts at the Museum of Science.
to flee or depart suddenly, especially without having paid one's bills.
Scarper, “to flee or depart suddenly,” originated in a British argot, likely Polari, and probably comes from Italian scappare “to flee,” which is related to English escape (compare French échapper). The ultimate origin appears to be from a Vulgar Latin verb reconstructed as excappāre, based on Latin ex “out of, from” and Late Latin cappa “hooded cloak, cape.” For another example of Polari’s influence on English, see the recent Word of the Day busk. Scarper was first recorded in English in the late 1840s.
a reflection or thought.
Pensée, “a thought,” is a loanword from French, in which it is the past participle of the verb penser “to think.” Penser derives from Latin pēnsāre, of the same meaning, which in turn comes from pendere “to hang”—similar to the English expression “have hanging over (one’s) head,” namely, when a persistent thought causes fear and anxiety. Pendere has two stems in English: the first is pend-, as in pendulum, suspend, and the recent Word of the Day spendthrift, and the second stem is pens-, as in compensate, expensive, and pension. Pensée was first recorded in English in the late 1880s.
