Word of the Day

Bifrost “the rainbow bridge of the gods” may look at first glance like a compound of Latin bi- “twice” and English frost, but it should come as little surprise that the name is of Old Norse origin instead. Old Norse is the ancestral language of Danish, Icelandic, Norwegian, and Swedish, and it was spoken throughout northern Europe 1000 years ago. In Old Norse, Bifrost (more accurately transliterated as Bifrǫst or Bifröst) is likely equivalent to bifa “to shake” and rǫst “league” or, more directly, “measure of length between two places of rest.” Old Norse and English are both Germanic languages, and while bifa does not have any relatives in modern English (except obsolete bive “to shake”), rǫst is cognate to English rest. Bifrost was first recorded in English in the late 18th century.

Circumambulate “to walk around” is a compound of two Latin-origin stems: circum- “around” and ambul- “to walk.” As we learned from the recent Words of the Day circadian and circumstellar, circum- comes from Latin circus “circle,” which is the source of English terms such as circa, circular, and circumference. The stem ambul- comes from Latin ambulāre “to walk,” which gives rise to English amble, ambulance, and funambulist “tightrope walker.” In modern Romance languages, though nothing is certain, some linguists hypothesize that Latin ambulāre may be the root (following a long series of unusual sound changes) of Spanish andar “to walk” and French aller “to go” (as in the recent Word of the Day laisser-aller). Circumambulate was first recorded in the 1650s.

Ganache “a filling made with chocolate and cream” is a loanword from French, and before it gained its sweet, present-day meaning, it meant “horse’s jaw” and could be used as an insult for another person’s intelligence (or lack of it). Quite the peculiar changes in definition there! Prior to French, ganache was adapted from Italian ganascia “jaw”; the change in spelling from sc to ch is to preserve the “shuh” sound, which is represented in French as ch and in Italian as sc (when followed by an e or i). Ultimately, ganache comes from Ancient Greek gnathos “jaw,” which is not connected to English gnash “to grind the teeth together” but is distantly related to English chin. Ganache was first recorded in English in the early 19th century.

Borborygmi “gurgling sounds in the intestines” is the plural of borborygmus, which indicates a single gurgling sound. Like many singular Latin nouns ending in -us, this ending switches to -i in the plural form, but remember that not all -us nouns from Latin change in this way; one opus becomes two opera, one octopus becomes two octopodes, and—technically—one Prius should become two Priora, though the hypercorrection Prii has won over in popularity. The y in borborygmi shows that, before Latin, the word was borrowed from Ancient Greek: one borborygmós and two borborygmoí, with the -os and -oi endings becoming Latinized to -us and -i according to the custom at the time. Borborygmós was created by imitating the rumbling sound in question, and for a similarly formed word, compare bárbaros “foreign,” the source of barbarian and the name Barbara. Borborygmi was first recorded in English in the 1710s.

Egalitarian “characterized by belief in the equality of all people” is an alteration of equalitarian, with French égal replacing the equal- component. Both English equal and French égal come from Latin aequālis “equal, like,” based on aequus “even, plain, just,” an adjective of unknown origin. Aequus is the source of English adequate, equal, equilibrium, equinox, equivalent, and iniquity. The evolution from Latin aequālis to French égal reflects three common sound changes: Latin ae usually becomes French é, Latin qu between vowels often becomes French g, and Latin suffixes such as -is are either reduced to -e or even dropped entirely. For the first of these changes, compare Latin prae with French pré- “before,” and for the other two, compare Latin aquila with French aigle “eagle.” Egalitarian was first recorded in English in the early 1880s.