Word of the Day

Exclave “an outlying portion of a country entirely or mostly surrounded by the territory of another country” is modeled on the noun enclave, its opposite, using the Latin prefix ex- “out of, from.” Enclave comes from an older French term meaning “locked in,” from Latin clāvis “key,” which also gives rise to words such as clavicle, the collarbone, originally meaning “little key” in Latin, and conclave, a secret meeting, originally meaning “(room) with a key” in Latin. Exclave entered English in the late 1800s.

It’s easy to imagine how glitz is related to the word glitter, but the two words share a far deeper origin: the Proto-Indo-European root gʰel- “to shine.” This root crops up in at least a dozen brightness- and vision-related words, including glance, glare, glass, glaze, gleam, glimmer, glimpse, glint, glisten, glister, gloss, and glow, and is also the source of many light color names, such as gold and yellow in English and khlōrós “greenish-yellow” in Ancient Greek, from which chlorophyll is derived. Glitz entered English in the 1970s, which is surprisingly recent.

Cathartic comes via Latin from Ancient Greek kathartikós “fit for cleansing,” from the adjective katharós “pure” or “clean.” The name Catherine is often claimed to derive from katharós, but this is folk etymology; while the words look and sound similar, they have different, unrelated origins. A true derivative of katharós is the term Catharism, the name of a sect of Christianity that flourished in the south of France during the Middle Ages and held as one of its fundamental beliefs the existence of two equal, opposing gods rather than a single, all-powerful deity. Cathartic entered English in the early 1600s.

Lucubrate derives from the Latin verb lūcubrāre “to work at night” or, more specifically, “to work by candlelight/lamplight,” from the Proto-Indo-European root lewk- “light,” which is the source of many Latin-derived words related to light, clarity, and brightness. From the verb lūcēre “to shine,” we inherit lucid and translucent; from the verb lūstrāre “to make bright,” we have adapted luster and illustrate; and from the noun lūmen “light,” we have luminous and illuminate. This Proto-Indo-European root is also found in the English terms light and lea, another word for “meadow”; Latin lūna “moon”; and Ancient Greek leukós “white,” as in leukocyte, the technical term for a white blood cell. Lucubrate entered English in the early 1600s.

Indefatigable “incapable of being tired out” has changed little in spelling and meaning since its origin as the Latin adjective indēfatīgābilis “untiring” or, more literally, “not-tire out-able.” This adjective derives from the verb fatīgāre “to tire,” the source of English fatigue (via French), but its ultimate origin is unknown. The most compelling theory is that fatīgāre comes from a hypothesized adjective, fatis “gaping open” or “yawning,” found also in the verb fatīscere “to grow weak” or “to crack open.” Indefatigable entered English in the late 1500s.