Word of the Day

Bilious “extremely unpleasant or distasteful” comes from Latin bīliōsus, which is formed from the noun bīlis “bile” and the suffix -ōsus “full of, containing.” The origins of bīlis are mysterious, but that has not stopped linguists from developing theories. One hypothesis, however flimsy, is a connection to Latin fel “gallbladder; venom, poison,” which could point to a derivation from the Proto-Indo-European root bhel- “to shine; white, yellow,” but this is a bit of a stretch of phonetic logic. Another option, in light of some potential cognates of bīlis in Celtic languages (such as Welsh bustl “gall, bile”), could point to a pre-Indo-European source from which only the Celtic and Italic languages borrowed the term. Alternatively, bīlis and its Celtic cognates could be distantly related to English bite because of bile’s digestive effects. Bilious was first recorded in English circa 1540.

Baksheesh “a tip, present, or gratuity” is adapted from Persian bakhshish “gift,” a noun derived from the verb bakhshidan “to give.” Because Persian is a member of the Iranian branch of the Indo-European language family, bakhshidan comes from a Proto-Indo-European root, bhag- “to share out, apportion, receive a share”; we learned about this root previously as the source of the Word of the Day nebbish, which comes from a Slavic term meaning “poor”—or, originally, “not having received a share.” As we saw earlier this week with the Word of the Day auriferous, the Proto-Indo-European sound bh (“buh” pronounced with a puff of air) often becomes ph in Ancient Greek, which explains how bhag- becomes phagein “to eat,” as in esophagus as well as the combining form -phage, which is used to designate cells that eat foreign particles and bacteria. Baksheesh was first recorded in English in 1620.

Tantivy “used as a hunting cry when the chase is at full speed” is of obscure origin, but the prevailing theory is that the term is of onomatopoeic origin, based on the sound of galloping or blowing a horn. While it may seem odd that a complex word such as tantivy, in comparison to far simpler onomatopoeias such as tap or toot, would result from imitating a sound, tantivy is far from the only term to blaze this trail. Compare the similar interjection tantara, which represents the sound of a trumpet or horn; the noun clippety-clop, which refers to the sound of a horse trotting on pavement; and the noun tarantara, which imitates the sound of a bugle. Tantivy was first recorded in English circa 1640.

Colcannon “an Irish dish made of cabbage, greens, and potatoes” is an anglicization of the Irish Gaelic term cál ceannann, in which cál means “cabbage” and ceannann means “white-headed.” Cál comes via Old Irish from Latin caulis, of the same meaning, which is the source of cauliflower as well as cole, a catchall term for plants of the mustard family. Ceannann is a compound of ceann “head” and -ann, a weak variant of fionn “white,” and has an unexpected cognate in English: penguin. While ceannann means “white-headed” in Irish Gaelic, penguin may derive from Welsh pen gwyn “white head.” Irish Gaelic and Welsh belong to two different branches of the Celtic group of Indo-European languages: Q-Celtic and P-Celtic, respectively. Many c-words in Q-Celtic correspond to p-words in P-Celtic because of an ancient sound shift; also compare Irish Gaelic cúig to Welsh pump “five.” Colcannon was first recorded in English circa 1770.

Auriferous “yielding or containing gold” is based on Latin aurifer “gold-bearing” and the adjectival suffix -ous “full of, containing.” Aurifer is a compound of aurum “gold” and the suffix -fer “bearer,” from the verb ferre “to bear, carry.” As we learned from the recent Word of the Day aureate, aurum is of uncertain origin but may be related to Latin aes “brass, bronze, copper” or aurōra “dawn.” Ferre comes from the Proto-Indo-European root bher-, of the same meaning, which is also the root of Ancient Greek phérein “to carry,” the source of euphoria, metaphor, and phosphorus. The root bher- is also behind the English verb bear; because of Grimm’s law, which changes stop consonants in Germanic languages such as English, German, and Swedish, the Proto-Indo-European sounds bh, dh, and gh—in which the h indicates aspiration, a “puff of air” sound—often become b, d, and g in English. Auriferous was first recorded in English in the 1720s.