Word of the Day

Gorgonize is ultimately derived, via Latin, from Ancient Greek Gorgṓ, which comes from the adjective gorgós “dreadful” and is the original Greek name for each of the Gorgons, the triumvirate of mythic sisters with snakes for hair and whose appearance was so frightful that anyone who looked at them directly would turn to stone. The Gorgons were named Euryale, Medusa, and Stheno, and Medusa is the most famous of the three because of her mortality, which allowed for Perseus to behead her by using her reflection in his shield to guide his sword.

Nostrum is a direct borrowing from Latin and is the neuter form of the singular possessive adjective noster “our”; this neuter version is often found today in the Latin phrase mare nostrum “our sea,” which the Romans used in reference to the Mediterranean Sea. The shift from a possessive adjective to a noun that means “remedy” happened by way of the unattested phrase nostrum remedium “our medicine,” with the latter half chopped off. Nostrum’s primary meaning in English is “​​a medicine sold with false or exaggerated claims,” and it gained the additional sense of “a remedy for all problems” when applied to non-medical topics such as politics.

Memoriter is a direct borrowing from Latin, in which the word has the same meaning, formed from the adjective memor “remembering” and the adverbial suffix -ter. Memor is the source of English commemorate, memorize, memorial, and many other words related to recollection. While English uses -ly to create adverbs from other parts of speech, Latin uses suffixes such as -ter, as we can see in other Latin-derived adverbs such as instanter “immediately.” Another such suffix is -ātim, as in verbatim “word for word” and literatim “letter for letter.”

Cruciverbalist is a combination of two Latin words—crux “cross” and verbum “word”—and in this way, it’s a direct translation of the word crossword using Latin elements. Crux is also the source of numerous words related to crosses or, more figuratively, focal points, such as crucial and excruciating, while verbum’s descendants include verbal, verbiage, and verbose, all of which pertain to words.

Orogeny is essentially a fusion of two Ancient Greek words: óros “mountain” and -géneia “origin.” While óros and its derivatives are largely technical terms, -géneia is related to numerous words pertaining to birth or family, such as gene, genesis, genetics, and genealogy.