Word of the Day

Girandole, “a firework that rotates and spreads out,” comes via French girandole from Italian girandola, a diminutive of giranda “a revolving jet.” Giranda is a derivative of girare “to turn in a circle, revolve,” from Late Latin gyrāre “to turn in a circle, wheel around.” Gyrāre comes from the noun gyrus “a circular track (for horses); circular movement; celestial orbit.” Gyrus in turn comes from Greek gŷros “ring, circle, circular trench.” Gŷros also appears in gyroscope, an instrument typically used in navigation; in modern Greek gýros “a turn” is also the name of the Greek dish made of meat roasted on a vertical rotisserie, our gyro. Girandole entered English in the first half of the 17th century.

Lilt, “a rhythmic swing or cadence; a light and merry song or song or tune,” comes from the Middle English verb lilten, lulten “to sound an alarm; lift up (one’s voice).” Lilten seems to be related to the Middle English verb lulle(n), lullien, loulen “to induce a baby to sleep by rocking or singing; lull.” All of these words are possibly related to Dutch and Low German lul “pipe,” lullen “to lull,” and Norwegian lilla “to sing,” and are likely to be imitative in origin. Lilt entered English in the 14th century.

Stalwart “strong and brave; valiant” or "firm, steadfast, or uncompromising" is in origin a Scots form of Middle English stalworth “strong, sturdy, serviceable.” Stalworth has many variant spellings in Middle English because its second syllable was confused with the adjective worth “having monetary value.” In fact, stalworth comes from Old English stǣlwirthe “able to stand a person in good stead; serviceable (of ships).” Stǣl is probably a contraction of stathol “base, support, bottom (of a haystack)”; the Old English adjective suffix -wirthe, with the variants -wierðe, -wyrðe, -weorðe “good, worthy,” survives in modern English worth. Stalwart in the sense “serviceable” entered English before 900; the other senses date from the late 12th century.

Cunctation “lateness; delay; tardy action” comes from Latin cunctātiō (inflectional stem cunctātiōn-), a derivative of the verb cunctārī “to delay, hang back.” Cunctārī is a derivative of the Proto-Indo-European root kenk-, konk- “to hang; hang back; vacillate.” The root appears in Sanskrit śáṅkate “(he) vacillates, doubts, fears,” Hittite kanki “(he) hangs.” In Proto-Germanic the original root konk- becomes hanh-, forming the transitive verb hanhan “to hang (e.g., a malefactor)” and the intransitive verb hanganan “to hang, be suspended, be in suspense.” Cunctation entered English in the second half of the 16th century.

Sacrosanct “extremely sacred or inviolable” comes directly from Latin sacrōsanctus, which more correctly should be a phrase sacrō sanctus “made holy by a sacred rite.” Sacrō is the ablative singular of the noun sacrum “sacred object or place; sacrificial victim; religious observance or rite.” Sanctus “secured by religious sanctions, inviolate” is an adjective use of the past participial of sancīre “to ratify solemnly, prescribe by law; consecrate.” The Romans liked everything nice and tidy, legal, watertight, and sacrōsanctus is just such a word. In the 500 years of the Roman Republic, the Tribunes of the People (Tribūnī Plēbis) defended the rights of the common people against the patricians, controlling the power of the magistrates, issuing vetoes right and left. The tribunes derived their power not from statute but from the oath that the plebeians swore to maintain the tribunes’ sacrōsanctitās, their sacrosanctity. Sacrosanct entered English in the 17th century.