Word of the Day

Apparatus “a complex instrument for a particular purpose” is a borrowing of Latin apparātus “equipment, act of equipping, preparation.” Using the suffix -tus, which indicates verbal action, apparātus—literally meaning “equipped (thing)”—is the past participle of the verb apparāre “to equip, make ready,” from parāre “to prepare.” The stems of parāre, para- and pera-, appear in a wide variety of Latin-derived terms, from imperative and preparation to vituperate and separatist. As a result of the regular sound changes that emerged as Latin evolved into French, parāre still exists today, albeit in disguise, in French-derived terms such as empire, rampart, repair, spar, and even sever. Apparatus was first recorded in English in the 1620s.

Rufescent “somewhat reddish” comes from the Latin verb rūfescere “to redden,” which is formed from the adjective rūfus “red, tawny” and the inchoative infix -esc- “to become, to begin to be.” Our longtime followers should be well acquainted by now with the infix -esc-, which has cropped up in the recent Words of the Day iridescent, evanesce, and violescent. There are numerous words for “red” in Latin, but among the best-known terms are ruber, rubeus, rūfus, and russus. In English, ruber gives us rubella, after the typical red rash, as well as rubric, because instructions in legal and religious texts were once often written in red ocher. Rubeus is the source of ruby and (via French) rouge, while descendants of russus include russet as well as roux (from French beurre roux “browned butter”) and the names Rousseau and Russell (from French roux “redhead”). Rufescent was first recorded in English in the 1810s.

Philtrum “the vertical groove on the surface of the upper lip” is a Latinized version of Ancient Greek phíltron, of the same meaning. However, phíltron could also mean “love potion,” and it is this sense that is preserved in the English term philter (not to be confused with the unrelated homophone filter, which is of Germanic origin). Phíltron is formed from the adjective phílos (stem phil-) “loving, dear” and the suffix -tron, which—as an instrumental suffix—roughly translates as “thing that does/is used for something.” The stem phil- (also philo-) is the source of dozens of words in English, from philosophy (“love of wisdom”) and philanthropy (“love of humankind”) to Philadelphia (“brotherly love”) and Philip (“love of horses”). Philtrum was first recorded in English in the first decade of the 17th century.

Nubilous “cloudy or foggy” derives from Latin nūbilus “cloudy, overcast,” equivalent to the noun nūbēs “cloud” and the adjectival suffix -ilus. Nūbēs is also, by way of French, the source of English nuance, which originally referred to literal shades and hues. As we learned from last year’s Word of the Day obnubilate, though nūbēs and Latin nebula sound similar and both mean “cloud,” the two words are unrelated; the stark difference between their vowels cannot be explained through regular historical sound changes. Though it is uncertain whether nūbēs has any cognates in English that are of Anglo-Saxon or general Germanic origin, there is a small “cloud”-related rabbit hole that we can explore: the Old Norse word for “cloud” is ský, which—you guessed it—was borrowed into English as sky. Nubilous was first recorded in English circa 1530.

Mise en scène “the process of setting a stage” is a borrowing of a French term with the same meaning that consists of three elements: mise “a putting, setting down,” en “in, on,” and scène “stage.” Mise is both a noun and past participle of the verb mettre “to place, put,” which derives from Latin mittere (perfect stem miss-) “to send,” the source of admit, permit, submit, and their respective noun forms (admission, permission, and submission). Scène derives by way of Latin scaena or scēna “background” from Ancient Greek skēnḗ “booth (where actors dressed).” Although skēnḗ is of uncertain origin, one theory is that it is related to Ancient Greek skiá “shadow,” which would make scène (and, therefore, English scene) a distant cognate of the recent Word of the Day sciamachy. Mise en scène was first recorded in English in the early 1830s.