Word of the Day

Subgum “prepared with mixed vegetables,” despite its appearance, is not based on Latin sub “under” and English gum. Rather, subgum is adapted from Cantonese sahp-gám “assorted,” cognate with Mandarin shíjǐn. The literal definition of sahp-gám is “ten brocades,” from sahp (Mandarin shí) “ten” and gám (Mandarin jǐn) “brocade.” One of the many differences between how Cantonese and Mandarin are romanized in English is how tones are indicated. While Mandarin is romanized in the pinyin system using diacritics such as macrons (ā) and acute marks (á), tones in Cantonese are often indicated in English through the use of superscript numbers. Subgum was first recorded in English in the late 1930s.

Xyst “a covered portico” derives via Latin xystus “garden terrace, shaded walk” from Ancient Greek xystós, which as a noun means “​​a covered colonnade” and as an adjective means “scraped, polished, smoothed.” Xystós comes from the verb xýein “to scrape, polish,” which is of uncertain origin but may be related to Latin novācula and Sanskrit kṣurá, both “razor” (compare Spanish navaja and Hindi churā). Note that, despite the spelling similarity, xyst is not related to xýlon “wood,” which is the source of terms such as xylophone. Xyst was first recorded in English circa 1660.

Viscid “having a glutinous consistency” derives from Latin viscum “mistletoe” and the adjectival suffix -idus. We’re sorry to burst your bubble, but despite mistletoe’s common association with romance and cheerful celebrations, it is in fact a parasitic plant that attaches itself to host trees and drains them of their nutrients. Mistletoe is also known for its sticky seeds, which are coated in a substance called viscin that can be repurposed into a material called birdlime, the avian equivalent of flypaper. Be careful not to confuse viscum with viscus (stem viscer-) “internal organ,” which is the source of visceral and eviscerate; the two words, though nearly identical, are not related. Viscid was first recorded in English circa 1630.

Esemplastic “having the ability to shape diverse elements into a unified whole” is a coinage by Samuel Taylor Coleridge, author of such works as The Rime of the Ancient Mariner. Coleridge, inspired by German philosopher Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling’s own coinage Ineinsbildung (literally “into one formation”), based esemplastic on three Ancient Greek elements. The first of these is es-, a variant of eis- “into, to”; compare the name of the city Istanbul, which emerged as a corruption of the Byzantine Greek phrase eis tḕn Pólin “to the City.” The second of these elements is (h)én, the neuter of heîs “one,” which has largely been replaced in English by mono-, from Ancient Greek mónos “alone.” The final element is plastikós “moldable,” from plássein “to form.” Esemplastic was first recorded in English in the 1810s.

Hieroglyphic “designating or pertaining to a pictographic script” derives by way of Late Latin hieroglyphicus from Ancient Greek hieroglyphikós “pertaining to sacred writing,” which is a compound of hierós “holy, sacred” and glyphḗ “carving.” The adjective hierós is likely a cognate of Latin īra “anger” (compare irate and irascible); both appear to come from a Proto-Indo-European root that indicates words of passion. The noun glyphḗ derives from the verb glýphein “to carve, hollow out,” which has a few unexpected cognates in English. Grimm’s law, which we learned about from our recent Words of the Day cordiform, togated, and transcendental, states that Ancient Greek g often corresponds to English c and k. With this in mind, compare Ancient Greek glýphein with English cleave, cleft, and cloven, all three of which involve splitting something apart. Hieroglyphic was first recorded in English circa 1580.