Word of the Day

Avgolemono “a soup made with beaten eggs, lemon juice, and chicken broth” is a loanword from Modern Greek augolémono, literally meaning “egg lemon.” Through a series of regular yet dramatic sound changes, Modern Greek augó derives from classical Greek ōión “egg,” which is the source of the combining form oo- (as in oocyte “immature egg cell”) and is distantly related to English egg and Latin ovum (as in ovary and, via Spanish, in huevos rancheros). Modern Greek lemóni, bucking the common trend of Greek words exported to the Italian peninsula, is a borrowing from Italian limone and ultimately derives from Persian līmū; from here, the word may have traveled through India and originated in Southeast Asia, perhaps in the Austronesian language family. Avgolemono was first recorded in English in the early 1960s.

Ostracize “to exclude from society” derives from Ancient Greek ostrakízein “to banish,” from óstrakon “potsherd, tile, ballot” and the verbal suffix -izein “-ize.” The original sense of ostrakízein involved banishing a person by voting that was conducted by using potsherds as ballots, hence the verb’s derivation. Though ostracize resembles ostrich, the flightless bird, in spelling and pronunciation, the two words are unrelated; instead, ostracize descends from a Proto-Indo-European root meaning “bone” that is also found in osteoporosis, a common bone disease; oyster, because of the hardness of the shell; and, from Latin, the adjective osseous “bony.” Ostracize was first recorded in English in the 1640s.

Pampero “a cold and dry southwesterly wind in Argentina” is a direct borrowing from Latin American Spanish, in which the term literally means “of the pampas.” Pampas are the vast grassy plains typical of southern South America that are especially common in Argentina, and pampa is a loanword from Quechua, in which it means “flat, unbounded plain.” Quechua is native to the Andes Mountains and is spoken to this day by millions of people in Argentina, Bolivia, Ecuador, and Peru, and although this dialect continuum is most often associated with the Incan Empire, the Inca were one of many Quechuan-speaking groups. Pampero was first recorded in English in the 1810s.

Desolate “deprived or destitute of inhabitants” comes via Middle English from Latin dēsōlātus “forsaken,” from sōlāre “to make lonely, abandon,” a derivative of the adjective sōlus “alone, on one's own, lonely.” Sōlus is the source of numerous loneliness-related words in English, such as isolate, soliloquy, solitary, solitude, solo, and even sullen, and it is most likely descended from a Proto-Indo-European reflexive pronoun; compare self (via Old English) and the combining form idio- “proper to one” (via Ancient Greek). Alternative origins for sōlus include a connection to sollus “whole” as well as a distant link to English consolation and solace (via Latin) and the German adjective selig “overjoyed”—almost the opposite of what desolate means today. Desolate was first recorded in English in the late 1300s.

Brackish “somewhat salty or briny” derives by way of the adjective brack “salty” from Dutch brak, which may be connected to Middle Dutch brak “worthless.” While freshwater has a relatively low sodium chloride content and seawater is far saltier, brackish water occurs where these two salt concentrations mix and merge, producing an environment between the two extremes. Because brackish water is too salty to be used for drinking or farming, the Middle Dutch definition of “worthless” surely applies. Note that brackish also contains the suffix -ish, which in this context indicates “somewhat” or “rather”; while brack is “salty,” brackish is salty to less than the full extent. Brackish was first recorded in English in the 1530s.