Word of the Day

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”).

Majesty, "regal, lofty, or stately dignity," comes from Middle English majeste, which ultimately comes from the Latin stem majestās, meaning "dignity, grandeur." Majesty was used first in the Christian Church in reference to a deity, then as a title of address or of dignity for kings and queens, and then in Roman history in reference to the power and dignity of the Roman people. It also appears in past Word of the Day lese majesty, which can be defined as an attack on any custom, institution, or belief held sacred or revered by numbers of people. Majesty entered English between 1250–1300.

Scholarch “the head of a school” comes from Ancient Greek scholárchēs, of the same general meaning, which is a compound of scholḗ “leisure employed in learning” and -archēs, a combining form of árchos “leader.” Scholḗ, of course, is the source of scholar, scholastic, and school. The trigraph sch has two predictable pronunciations in English: sch is pronounced as “shuh” in words of German origin (such as the recent Words of the Day schwa and Weltanschauung) and as “skuh” in words of Ancient Greek or Italian origin (such as the recent Words of the Day paschal and scherzando). Scholarch was first recorded in English in the early 1860s.

Tessellate “to form of small squares” comes from Latin tessellātus “mosaic,” based on ​​tessella “small square stone or cube.” The Latin noun tessella is a diminutive of tessera, a small piece used in mosaic work that often has four sides, which comes from Ionic Greek tésseres “four.” Ionic is one of several dialects of Ancient Greek, and the word for “four” in the well-known Attic dialect is téttares. Téttares and tésseres together are the source of tetrapod “a four-limbed animal,” the game Tetris, trapezoid, trapezium, and the recent Word of the Day tesseract. Tessellate was first recorded in English circa 1790.