Word of the Day

Haček “a diacritic (ˇ) placed over a letter to indicate that a sound is palatalized” is a borrowing from Czech háček “small hook,” a diminutive of hák “hook.” The resemblance between hák and English hook is not a coincidence; hák is adapted from Middle High German hāken (compare modern German Haken) and is cognate to English hook and heckle, Dutch haak “hook” and hoek “corner,” and Icelandic haki “pick” and hækja “crutch.” An alternative name for the haček is caron, which is of unknown origin, though one hypothesis—based purely on spelling similarity, so take it with a grain of salt—is that caron is based on caret (^) and/or macron (¯). Haček was first recorded in English in the early 1950s.

Sennachie “a professional storyteller of family history” is borrowed from Scottish Gaelic seanachaidh, which comes from Old Irish senchae or senchaid “historian.” The sen- element in these Old Irish terms means “old, ancient” and is cognate with Latin senex “old; an elder.” From senex (stem sen-), English inherits senate, senescent, and senile, all of which pertain to elders, either in age or in society. The comparative form of senex is senior “older,” which is the source of senior, sir, and surly as well as French seigneur, Italian signore, and Spanish señor. Sennachie was first recorded in English in the 1530s.

Defenestrate “to throw out of a window” is a back-formation from defenestration; as with noun–verb pairs such as automation and automate, bartender and bartend, and burglar and burgle, the verb defenestrate is formed from the noun defenestration. Defenestrate ultimately derives from Latin fenestra “window,” which is of uncertain origin. One theory is that fenestra is derived from or connected to the Ancient Greek verb phaínein “to bring to light, cause to appear,” which is the source of many fant- and phant- words in English, from fantastic and fantasy to phantasmagoric and phantom. However, it is likely that fenestra derives from Etruscan, a language of unknown origin that was once spoken in the Italian peninsula. Defenestrate was first recorded in English at the turn of the 20th century.

Chaparral “a dense growth of shrubs or small trees” is an Americanism borrowed from Spanish, in which it is equivalent to chaparro “evergreen oak” and -al, a suffix indicating where something is found in abundance, such as an orchard. Chaparro is likely adapted from Basque txapar “little thicket.” Basque is a language spoken in northern Spain and southwestern France, a region also known as Basque Country, and it is a language isolate—a language with no known surviving relatives. Basque has been conclusively linked with Aquitainian, a language spoken 2,000 years ago in Aquitaine, a region of southwestern France, but outside this small corner of Western Europe, the origins of Basque are shrouded in mystery. Chaparral was first recorded in English circa 1840.

Quasar “a starlike extragalactic object” is a contraction of quasi-stellar, as in quasi-stellar radio source, a term that developed because of quasars’ resemblance to stars. Quasars are not galaxies but are rather galactic nuclei that draw their energy from supermassive black holes. The later term pulsar, contracted from pulsating star, was based on quasar. The element quasi- “resembling” derives from Latin quasi “as if, as though,” from quam “as” and sī “if.” For more about the stellar element, navigate to the recent Word of the Day circumstellar; it comes from Latin stella “star.” Quasar was coined by astrophysicist Hong-Yee Chiu in 1964.