Word of the Day
Learn a new word every day! The Dictionary.com team of language experts carefully selects each Word of the Day to add some panache to your vocabulary.
reliance on temporary solutions rather than on consistent, long-term plans.
Ad hockery (also spelled ad hocery), “reliance on temporary solutions rather than on consistent, long-term plans,” is a compound of the Latin phrase ad hoc “for this (purpose, occasion)” and the noun suffix -ery; the phrase has an air of frustration or contempt. Ad hockery entered English at the end of the 19th century.
like a clump or tuft of wool.
Flocculent “like a clump or tuft of wool, fleecy” comes from the Latin noun floccus “tuft of wool” (of uncertain etymology) and the adjective suffix -lentus, naturalized in English as -lent. Flocculent is used in the physical sciences, such as physical chemistry, zoology, botany, and meteorology. Flocculent entered English about 1800.
any barely drinkable liquid or beverage, as inferior soda, beer, coffee, or soup.
Belly-wash is an obvious slang term with several meanings: a barely drinkable liquid (such as soup) or beverage (alcoholic or nonalcoholic); it also means nonsense, rather like hogwash. Belly-wash, an Americanism, entered English in the second half of the 19th century.
any controversy that attracts great public attention.
Cause célèbre is a French phrase still unnaturalized in English, meaning “famous (legal) case.” French cause comes from Latin causa “legal proceedings, trial”; célèbre comes from Latin celeber (inflectional stem celebr-) “crowded, busy, well-attended, famous.” Causes célèbres in the U.S. include the Scopes Trial, maybe more commonly known as the Monkey Trial (1925) about the teaching of evolution, and the O.J. Simpson Trial (1994–95). The term is also used more broadly to refer to any controversy that attracts great public attention. Cause célèbre entered English in the second half of the 18th century.
composed of a mixture of languages.
Macaronic originally meaning “composed in a mixture of Latin and vernacular languages, or using vernacular words with Latin inflectional endings, typically for burlesque or parody” is not much used nowadays with Latin composition on its way out. But macaronic also includes any combination of languages, such as the John Lennon and Paul McCartney song Michelle (1965) written in a combination of English and French. Macaronic comes from Middle French macaronique and New Latin macarōnicus. The French and Latin adjectives come from Southern dialectal Italian maccaroni (Italian maccheroni) “dumplings, gnocchi,” the source of English macaroni. The original Italian dish was a mixture of pasta, butter, and cheese (pretty close to our macaroni and cheese), and it was originally regarded as coarse food only for peasants. The meaning of macaronic comes from the association of this peasant food with the vernacular language of peasants. Macaronic entered English in the first half of the 17th century.
