Word of the Day

Gnomon “the raised part of a sundial that casts the shadow” is a borrowing by way of Latin gnōmōn from Ancient Greek gnṓmōn “interpreter, discerner.” From there, gnṓmōn is derived from the verb gignṓskein (stem gnō-) “to know, perceive, judge,” and the stem gnō- also appears in other Ancient Greek-origin terms such as agnostic (literally “without knowledge”) and diagnosis (literally “means of discernment”). Because Ancient Greek and Latin are distantly related, Latin contains numerous words related to knowledge that also feature the telltale gn- element, including cognitive (“learned”), incognito (“unknown”), ignorant (“not knowing”), and recognize (“know again”). Gnomon was first recorded in English in the 1540s.

Ataraxia “freedom from anxiety” is a borrowing from the Ancient Greek noun ataraxía “impassiveness, calmness,” which is based on the adjective ataráktos “unmoved.” Ataráktos, in turn, is a derivative of the verb tarássein (stem tarak-) “to disturb,” plus the prefix a- “not, without.” One major proponent of ataraxia is the philosopher Epicurus, the inspiration for the recent Word of the Day epicurean. When we discuss the “Ancient Greek” language, we usually mean the Attic dialect of Ancient Greek spoken in the 5th and 4th centuries BC. However, where other Ancient Greek dialects have -ss-, Attic has -tt-, and for these words, Ancient Greek dictionaries opt for the more generic tarássein over the Attic taráttein. This means that, if your name is Melissa, from the Ancient Greek word for “honeybee,” you would be known throughout most of Ancient Greece as Mélissa but in Attica as Mélitta. Ataraxia was first recorded in English in the first decade of the 17th century.

Ungulate “a hoofed mammal” derives from Late Latin ungulātus “having claws or hoofs.” The root of this word, Latin ungula “claw, hoof, talon,” may sound a little familiar if you speak a Romance language because it is also the source of many modern words for “fingernail,” such as French ongle, Italian unghia, and Spanish uña. Ungula, literally meaning “little nail,” is a compound of unguis “nail” and the suffix -ula, which is one of several common diminutive affixes in Latin; another such affix is the element -ill-, as featured in the etymology for the recent Word of the Day selection cantillate. Ungulate was first recorded in English circa 1800.

Forfend “to defend, secure, protect” comes from the Middle English verb forfenden, a compound of the prefix for- and the verb fend. The first element, for-, was frequently used in Middle and Old English to create words with the sense “off, away, extremely” or to imply a negative or prohibitive force, such as forbid, forget, and forgo. The second element, fend, is a reduced form of defend, which derives via French from the Latin verb dēfendere “to repel, ward off” and is a distant relative of bane (from Old English bana “slayer”) and the recent Word of the Day bezoar (from Persian pād-zahr “counterpoison”). Forfend was first recorded in English in the late 14th century.

Xebec “a small, three-masted vessel” is an alteration of chebec, which comes by way of French from either Catalan xabec or obsolete Spanish xabeque, from Arabic shabbāk, a small type of ship. In modern Spanish, the older form xabeque is now spelled jabeque; the version with an initial x reflects the earlier use of x to make the “sh” sound, which eventually shifted to the “h” sound. While many Spanish terms that once contained the “sh”-sounding x have since shifted to the modern Spanish “h”-sounding j (such as Don Quixote, which is spelled Don Quijote in modern Spanish), this x—with the modern “h” pronunciation—still exists today in place names such as México, Oaxaca, and even in Bexar, the county in Texas where San Antonio is located. Xebec was first recorded in English in the 1750s.