Word of the Day
Learn a new word every day! The Dictionary.com team of language experts carefully selects each Word of the Day to add some panache to your vocabulary.
the responsible overseeing and protection of something considered worth caring for and preserving.
Stewardship is a compound of the common noun steward “a manager of someone’s property or finances” and the native English suffix -ship, which denotes condition, office, or skill. From about the beginning of the 20th century, stewardship in many Christian denominations has acquired the sense “obligation for the responsible use of time, money, and talents in the service of God and of one’s neighbor.” Stewardship entered English in the 15th century.
a hooded pullover jacket originally made of fur and worn in the Arctic, now made of any weather-resistant fabric.
Anorak “a hooded pullover jacket made of fur” is an adaptation of Greenlandic Inuit annoraaq. Though anoraks were originally made from fur, over the past century, additional fabric options have emerged as alternatives. The Inuit groups of Greenland developed anoraks, while parkas, which are similar garments, arose among the peoples of northern Russia who speak one of the Nenets languages. An additional sense of anorak in British slang—and a very specific sense at that—refers to socially awkward people who are passionate about hobbies that others find tedious. Anorak was first recorded in English in the early 1920s.
a concluding part added to a literary work, as a novel.
Epilogue “a concluding part added to a literary work” derives via Middle English and Latin from Ancient Greek epílogos “conclusion of a speech,” a compound of the preposition epí “in addition to, over, on” and the noun lógos “word.” While an epilogue comes at the end of a book, a prologue comes at the beginning. The element epí, appearing in English as the prefix epi-, is also found in terms such as epidemic, originally meaning “among the people,” and epidermis, originally meaning “on the skin.” Lógos comes from the verb légein “to gather, choose, speak” and is the source of words such as apology, dialogue, and logarithm; this noun is also the source of the combining form -logy “science,” as in biology, geology, and zoology. Epilogue was first recorded in English at the turn of the 15th century.
a pitifully ineffectual, luckless, and timid person.
Nebbish “a pitifully ineffectual person” is a variant of the Yiddish term nebekh “poor, unfortunate.” Unlike the majority of words in Yiddish, which are of Germanic extraction, nebekh is most likely from a Slavic source such as Czech nebohý “poor.” The original meaning of this Slavic source was “unendowed,” and it derived from a negative prefix (compare English not and non-) and the Proto-Indo-European root bhag- “to share, apportion.” This same root is also found in Ancient Greek phagein “to eat,” as in esophagus. Nebbish was first recorded in English in the early 1890s.
resembling, containing, or consisting of fat or oil; greasy; oily.
Unguinous “containing fat or oil” derives from Latin unguen “fat, grease,” plus the suffix -ōsus “full of.” Unguen, in turn, comes from the verb unguere “to smear” (stem unct-), which is also the source of English terms such as unction “an act of anointing,” unctuous “having an oily feel,” and unguent “a salve applied to wounds.” The stem unct- regularly became oint in French, leading to words such as anoint and ointment. Unguinous was first recorded in English at the turn of the 17th century.
