Word of the Day

Concatenation comes straight from the Late Latin noun concatēnātiō (stem concatēnātiōn-) “connection, sequence” (literally “chaining together”), a derivation of catēna “chain.” The Italian and Spanish words for “chain” (catena and cadena, respectively) far more closely resemble the Latin original than does the modern French chaîne (the English source for “chain”), which passed through the stages chaeine (Old French), from caeine (Old North French), from Latin catēna. Concatenation entered English in the early 17th century.

The English noun peduncle is a technical term in the biological sciences, meaning “a stalk, flower stalk, stem.” Peduncle comes from New Latin pedunculus, with the same meanings, a derivative of Latin pēs (inflectional stem ped-) “foot” and the suffix -unculus, a variant of -culus, used to form diminutives. Latin pēs, ped- comes from the very widespread Proto-Indo-European root ped-, pod-, pēd-, pōd “foot.” The variant pōd- regularly becomes fōt- in Proto-Germanic, fōtus in Gothic, fōtr in Old Icelandic, fōt in Old English, and foot in English. The variant pod- becomes pous (stem pod-) “foot” in Greek, and the preposition pod “under” in Slavic. The Latin suffix -unculus is uncommon, but it also appears in Latin homunculus “human being, mere human being (as opposed to preternatural or supernatural beings or forces),” English homunculus. Peduncle entered English in the early 18th century.

The English adjective emulous, “desirous of equaling or excelling; jealous, envious,” comes from Latin aemulus with the same meanings, both positive and negative. Aemulus is a Latin derivative of the rare Proto-Indo-European root aim-, im- “to copy, imitate.” From that same root Latin derives imāgō (inflectional stem imāgin-) “picture, likeness, reflection (in a mirror),” source of English image, imagine, and imago (a technical term in entomology and psychoanalysis), the Latin verb imitārī “to copy, reproduce, imitate,” source of English imitate, imitation, and the Latin adjective inimitābilis “unable to be reproduced or copied, inimitable.” Emulous entered English in the 14th century.

The English noun and adjective abecedarian has several closely related senses. As a noun, it means “someone learning the letters of the alphabet,” and more loosely, “a beginner in a field of learning.” As an adjective, abecedarian means “pertaining to the alphabet; arranged in alphabetical order; elementary, rudimentary.” Abecedarian comes from Medieval Latin abecedāriānus, a derivative of Late Latin abecedārius, an adjective and noun first used by St. Augustine of Hippo. As an adjective, abecedārius means “pertaining to the alphabet; alphabetical.” As a masculine noun, abecedārius means “one learning the alphabet”; the feminine noun abecedāria means “elementary instruction,” and the neuter noun abecedārium “the alphabet.” The noun abecedarium has been in English since the days of the Old English monk and scholar Byrhtferth of Ramsey, who used the word. In modern English abecedarium is a fairly technical word, meaning “an ancient writing system using an alphabet,” usually referring to the languages of ancient Italy (e.g., Latin, Oscan, Umbrian, Etruscan) and the many dialects and local alphabets of ancient Greece. Abecedarian in the sense “someone learning the letters of the alphabet” entered English in the beginning of the 17th century.

Foozle “to bungle; play clumsily; bungle a stroke at golf,” perhaps comes from German dialect fuseln “to work badly, clumsily, hurriedly.” The verb foozle is somehow connected with the noun foozle “an old fogey; a bungled stroke at golf.” The verb and noun both entered English in the late 1850s.