Word of the Day

Bezoar “a calculus found in the stomach of ruminants, formerly reputed to be an effective remedy for poison” is derived via Medieval Latin bezahar and Arabic bāzahr from Persian pād-zahr “antidote.” This Persian term is a compound of the elements pād- “protector” and zahr “poison.” Pād- comes from the Proto-Indo-European root pā- “to protect, feed,” which is also the source of food, fodder, and foster (via Old English); forage and fur (via Old French and Germanic); and recent Word of the Day selection repast (via Latin). Zahr also comes from a Proto-Indo-European root, gwhen- “to strike, kill,” which is the source of bane (from Old English bana “slayer”), defend and offend (from Latin dēfendere “to repel, ward off” and offendere “to strike against”), and gun (from Old Norse gunnr “war”). Bezoar was first recorded in English in the 1470s.

Filiopietistic “of or relating to reverence of forebears” is a compound of the Latin noun fīlius “son” and the adjective pietistic “intense in religious devotion,” the latter of which derives ultimately from Latin pius “pious.” Fīlius is also the source of the English terms affiliate “to bring into close connection,” filial “of or relating to a son or daughter,” and even the Anglo-Norman element Fitz “(illegitimate) son of” that appears in many surnames of English and Irish origin, such as Fitzgerald and Fitzwilliam. Pius is the root of pious as well as expiate “to make amends for” and may be related to pūrus “clear, clean,” the source of pure. Filiopietistic was first recorded in English in the early 1890s.

Babushka “an elderly Russian woman” is a borrowing from Russian bábushka “grandmother,” equivalent to bába “old woman” and -ushka, a diminutive suffix. Bába is but one example of the innumerable kinship terms that originated from baby talk; the bilabial consonants b, m, and p are among the first sounds that infants acquire, and these three sounds are the bases of the words for “father” and “mother,” as well as for other elder relatives, in multiple language families. It is not a coincidence that the word for “mother” in Basque (ama), Hawaiian (makuahine), Hebrew (ímma), Latin (māter), Korean (eomi), Mandarin Chinese (mǔqīn), Navajo (amá), and Quechua (mama) all contain the letter m even though these languages are unrelated. Babushka was first recorded in English in the late 1930s.

Eradicate “to remove or destroy utterly” comes from the Latin verb ērādīcāre “to root out,” a compound of ē- “out” and rādīx “root.” Other derivatives of rādīx include radical, the primary sense of which is “of or going to the root or origin,” and radish, an edible root. The ultimate origin of rādīx is the Proto-Indo-European root wrād- “branch, root,” which is also the source of English root, wort, and orchard; Latin rāmus “branch” (as in ramify); and Ancient Greek rhíza “root” (as in the combining form rhizo- and the noun licorice, the latter from Ancient Greek glykýrriza “sweet root”). Eradicate was first recorded in English circa 1560.

Fomites “surfaces that can become contaminated with and transmit pathogens” is the plural form of the noun fomes, from Latin fōmes “kindling wood.” Although fomes is the correct singular form of fomites, fomite also appears in English because of a process known as back formation; because most English nouns are pluralized by adding -s, the final -s is dropped from fomites by mistaken analogy with other English nouns. Similar back formations include primate (from Latin singular prīmās, plural prīmātēs) and termite (from Latin singular termes, plural termitēs). Other back formations of non-Latin origin include cherry (from Old English singular ċiris) and pea (from Modern English singular pease). Fomites was first recorded in English at the turn of the 19th century.