Word of the Day

Inveigle “to entice or lure” derives by way of Anglo-French from Old French avogle “blind” (compare modern French aveugle). Avogle, in turn, comes from a Vulgar Latin term reconstructed as aboculus “eyeless,” from the phrase ab oculīs “without eyes.” This phrase is considered to be a calque based on a phrase meaning “without eyes” in another language, such as Gaulish or Ancient Greek. A calque, also known as a loan translation, is a word or phrase that is literally translated when borrowed from one language into another. One famous literary calque appears in the series The Lord of the Rings; author J. R. R. Tolkien created the name Bag End as a calque of the French term cul-de-sac, which means “bottom of the bag.” Inveigle was first recorded in English circa 1480.

Palingenesis “rebirth” derives from Ancient Greek pálin “again” and génesis “origin, source.” Pálin appears in several other English words that pertain to doubling or redoing, such as palimpsest “a parchment from which writing has been erased to make room for another text” and palindrome “a word or phrase reading the same backward as forward.” Common palindromes include the words kayak, level, racecar, and rotator as well as phrases such as “Madam, I’m Adam.” Génesis, the source of English genesis, has three important cognates that have also found their way into English. The first is Latin gēns (stem gent-) “race, people,” which gives rise to English gentle and gentry. The second is Sanskrit jāti “birth; class,” which was borrowed into English as jati, another term in Hinduism for “caste.” The third is Old English gecynd “nature, race, origin,” which exists today as kind “​​a class or group of people.” Palingenesis was first recorded in English circa 1620.

Contumacious “stubbornly perverse or rebellious” is derived from the noun contumacy “obstinate resistance to authority,” ultimately from the Latin adjective contumāx “unyielding, stubborn.” The -tum- element in contumāx is of uncertain origin, but there are two hypotheses. The definition-based theory connects -tum- to the verb temnere “to despise,” which is also the source of the stem tempt-, as in contempt, while the spelling-based theory connects -tum- to the verb tumēre “to swell,” the source of tumescent and tumor. Contumacious was first recorded in English in the 1590s.

Yurt “a tentlike dwelling of the Mongol and Turkic peoples of central Asia” is a borrowing by way of Russian yurta from an uncertain Turkic source meaning “home” or “abode.” The Turkic language family, which includes Turkish as well as Chuvash, Crimean Tatar, Uyghur, and Yakut, is found in pockets throughout Asia, from China and Siberia in the east to Cyprus and Turkey in the west. Turkic languages were once considered to form part of a much larger language family, the Altaic family, along with the Mongolic and Tungusic languages of East Asia—and perhaps even with Japanese and Korean as well. However, the similarities among these five language groups are now believed to be the result of language contact rather than a common ancestry. Yurt was first recorded in English in the late 1880s.

Epicurean “fond of or adapted to luxury or indulgence in sensual pleasures” derives via Middle English from Latin Epicūrēus “of Epicurus.” Epicurus (in the original Ancient Greek, Epíkouros) was a philosopher of Athenian origin who flourished in the late 4th and early 3rd centuries BC, and his school of thought, Epicureanism, had as its foundation the belief that pleasure was most important. The name Epicurus comes from the Ancient Greek adjective epíkouros “assisting,” which also functions as a noun meaning “ally, helper.” Epicurean was first recorded in English in the late 1300s.