Word of the Day

Saltigrade means "moving by leaping" and refers to a family of jumping spiders. The first element, salti-, derives from Latin saltāre "to jump about; dance," frequentative of salīre "to jump." The second element, -grade, meaning "walking; moving," derives from Latin gradī "to walk, step, go." Saltigrade first appears in English in the early part of the 19th century.

The noun fustian has several meanings: “a stout fabric of cotton and flax; fabric of stout cotton or of cotton and low-quality wool; inflated or turgid rhetoric.” Middle English has the forms fustian, fustain, fustein (and still others), all from Old French fustai(g)ne. The Middle English word means only “a kind of cloth made from cotton, flax, or wool (not necessarily coarse or of poor quality); a coverlet of such cloth to be spread over a bed or mattress.” As with many widespread cultural items, such as cloth and clothing, luxury items (wine, perfume), weapons, and foods (rice, turkey), the etymology of fustian is complicated. The Middle English and Old French words come from Medieval Latin fūstāneum, fūstiānum, fūstānum, which may be a derivative of Latin fūstis “stick, cudgel,” used as a loan translation of Greek xýlina lína “cotton,” literally, “wood linen” (the cotton plant is woody, unlike flax, the source of linen). Another suggested source for fūstāneum is Fostat, a suburb of Cairo, where fustian was manufactured. Fustian entered English about 1200. The adjective is derived from the noun.

Ambisinister, “clumsy or unskillful with both hands,” is the opposite of ambidextrous, “able to use both hands equally well.” The first element of ambisinister, ambi-, is the familiar Latin prefix ambi- “both, around,” as in ambiguous and ambivalent; the second half of the word, -sinister, comes from the Latin adjective sinister “on the left, left hand, or left side; adverse in influence or nature; unfavorably located.” Ambisinister is a relatively recent word, first recorded in 1849, more than two centuries after ambidextrous (1646).

Flump, a verb and noun meaning “to drop or fall suddenly or heavily; the act or sound of flumping," is a colloquialism dating back to the first half of the 19th century. As with many colloquial and slang terms, its etymology is obscure: some authorities suggest a blend of flop and plump, which have similar meanings; others suggest a purely imitative origin, as with dump and slump.

Skerrick, “a small piece or quantity; a bit,” used in the negative, as in “Not a skerrick of work got done,” is a slang term used nowadays mostly in Australia and New Zealand. Skerrick originated in Great Britain in the early 1820s as a slang term for halfpenny. As with most slang terms, the origin of skerrick is obscure: it may be a variant of scuddick, which also dates from the early 1820s, means the same thing as skerrick, and has an equally obscure etymology.