Word of the Day

Patronymic “a name derived from the name of a male ancestor” is an adaptation of the Ancient Greek term patrōnymikós “named after one’s father,” which is equivalent to patḗr (stem patr-) “father” and -ōnymos “having the kind of name specified,” plus the adjectival suffix -ikos. The female equivalent of patronymic is the recent Word of the Day metronymic (also spelled matronymic by analogy with Latin mater “mother”). Patronymics in English typically contain the suffix -son, as in Jackson or Johnson, while similar suffixes like -sen and -sson appear in Germanic languages such as German and Icelandic. Meanwhile, Irish and Scottish Gaelic use Mac- (often anglicized as Mc-), as in MacDonald and McIver, though the Anglo-Norman element Fitz- (ultimately from Latin filius “son”), as in Fitzgerald and Fitzsimmons, appears as well. Portuguese and Spanish respectively feature -es and -ez, as in Gonzales and López, which come from the Latin possessive ending -is “of.” Patronymic was first recorded in English circa 1610.

Ghibli “a hot wind of the North African desert” is a loanword from Libyan Arabic gibli “south wind,” which is equivalent to standard Arabic qiblī (alternatively translated as qibliyy) “southern.” The reason for the h in ghibli is because of Italian, which borrowed ghibli from Arabic; because g before e or i is pronounced like “j” in Italian, an h is added to preserve the hard “g” sound. Despite the presence of the h, when visionary animator and director Hayao Miyazaki borrowed the name for his film studio, Studio Ghibli, he transliterated the name into Japanese as Jiburi. Ghibli was first recorded in English in the early 19th century.

Triturate “to reduce to powder by grinding” comes from Late Latin trītūrātus, the past participle of the verb trītūrāre “to thresh, rub, crush,” which is the frequentative of the verb terere, of the same meaning. (To learn more about frequentative verbs, check out our recent Word of the Day dauntless.) Terere is also the source of English terms such as contrite and detriment, and distantly related to terere are numerous words in Indo-European languages somewhat related to rubbing, turning, and similar actions. From Latin triō “plow ox” comes the recent Word of the Day septentrion, while Ancient Greek tórnos “tool for making circles” gives us attorney, contour, detour, and turn. Because Latin t tends to correspond to English th, native English relatives of triturate include thrash, thread, threshold, and throw; compare the recent Words of the Day togated and transcendental. Triturate was first recorded in English circa 1620.

Flageolet “a small end-blown flute” comes from Old French flajolet, which comprises flajol “flute” and the diminutive suffix -et. Flajol is originally a word from the Provençal language, also known as Occitan, which was once widely spoken throughout what is now southern France and still survives thanks to language revitalization efforts. Ultimately, flageolet may come from the Latin verb flāre “to blow,” which is the source of deflate, inflate, and even flavor. Because Latin f tends to correspond to English b, cognates of flageolet in English include blow, blast, and perhaps bladder and blather, the latter two from a Germanic source roughly translated as “something blown up.” Flageolet was first recorded in English in the 1650s.

Vexillology “the study of flags” is a compound of the Latin noun vexillum “flag” and the combining form -logy, which indicates the study of a subject and is of Ancient Greek origin. Vexillum (also spelled vēxillum) is a diminutive of vēlum “sail, covering,” making vexillum literally mean “little sail.” The reason why vexillum, rather than a word such as “vēlillum,” is the diminutive of vēlum is likely because of the recent Word of the Day syncope, or the loss of a sound from the middle of a word. Vēlum probably was once pronounced like “vexlum” in the early days of Latin, and the x was eventually dropped—but not before the stem vex- could be combined with the suffix -illum to create vexillum. If that sounds a little odd, bear in mind that English lord comes from Old English hlāfweard “loaf-keeper,” which shed half its consonants! Vexillology was coined in the late 1950s.