Word of the Day

Butte “an isolated hill or mountain rising abruptly above the surrounding land” is a borrowing from French, in which it means “small hill, mound.” ​​In Old French, butte referred specifically to a mound or structure used for archery practice and also to the target itself, which is why modern French but means “aim, goal.” Despite its enduring place in the French language, butte was originally a borrowing from a Germanic source such as Frankish or Old Norse, in which the word meant something like “piece” or “end part.” Butte was first recorded in English in the mid-1600s.

Trident “a three-pronged instrument or weapon” derives from the Latin adjective tridēns “having/with three teeth” and is often associated with Neptune, known to the Greeks as Poseidon, the god of the sea and earthquakes. A similar symbol is the bident, a spear with two prongs, which was associated with Pluto, known to the Greeks as Hades, the god of the underworld. Trident’s two Latin sources, trēs and dēns (stem dent-), are cognates of their respective English translations three and tooth. A common trend in the Indo-European language family is for t in Latin to correspond to th in native English words, and this pattern is also visible when comparing Latin frāter, māter, and pater to English brother, mother, and father. Trident was first recorded in English in the late 1500s.

Muliebrity “womanly nature or qualities” derives from Late Latin muliēbritās “womanhood,” from mulier “woman.” Mulier is of uncertain origin, though the most common theory connects the noun to the comparative adjective mollior “softer,” from mollis “soft, calm, gentle,” the source of the English verb mollify “to soften in feeling or temper.” Mulier was one of four primary Latin words that evolved into the terms for “woman,” “lady,” or “wife” in modern Romance languages; while mulier became Portuguese mulher and Spanish mujer, Latin fēmina “woman” became French femme and Spanish hembra, Latin domina “lady, mistress (of a household)” became French dame and Spanish doña, and Latin senior “older” became Portuguese senhora and Spanish señora. Muliebrity was first recorded in English in the late 1500s.

Serotinal “pertaining to or occurring in late summer” describes the midpoint that neither estival “pertaining or appropriate to summer” nor autumnal “belonging to or suggestive of autumn” can completely cover. The term derives from the Latin adverb sērō “late,” from the adjective sērus “late, slow, tardy.” Sērō and the feminine form of sērus, sēra, later became the sources of the word for “evening” in many Romance languages, such as French soir, Italian sera, and Portuguese serão. Serotinal was first recorded in English in the late 1890s.

Iridescent “displaying a play of lustrous colors like those of the rainbow” is a combination of the Ancient Greek word îris (stem irid-) “rainbow” and the Latin inceptive infix -sc- “the process of becoming.” In Greek mythology, Iris was the goddess of rainbows and sometimes functioned as the messenger of the gods, serving as a link between the heavens and the mortal realm, similar to the rainbow bridge Bifrost in Norse mythology. Îris is often considered to derive from the Proto-Indo-European root wei- “to turn, twist,” which is also found in wire (from Old English) and Latin vītis “vine,” but other linguists have proposed a pre-Greek origin. Iridescent was first recorded in English in the 1790s.