Word of the Day

Megillah, a slang term usually meaning “a lengthy, detailed, complicated story, especially a tedious one” comes from Yiddish megile. Megile is part of the Yiddish phrase di gantse megile “the whole (tedious) story.” The Yiddish noun comes from Biblical Hebrew məgillāh “scroll, roll, volume,” a collective noun generally referring to any of the five Biblical books assigned for public recitation in synagogues on certain Jewish feast days, but specifically to the recitation of the Book of Esther during Purim “(the Feast of) Lots,” celebrated in late winter or early spring. Məgillāh is a derivative of the verb gālal “to roll.” Megillah entered English in its liturgical sense in the mid-17th century; its slang sense dates from the early 20th century.

Adminicle “an aid; auxiliary” comes ultimately from Latin adminiculum “prop (for vines), a stake or pole for support”; in Roman legal usage adminiculum means “an argument supporting a claim.” Adminiculum is a compound beginning with the Latin preposition and prefix ad, ad- “to, toward, at,” and ending with the diminutive suffix -culum, which is the source of the English suffixes -cule (as in molecule and ridicule) and, via Old French, -cle (as in article and canticle). The midsection mini- of adminiculum is problematic, but it is probably related to moenia “defensive walls of a town.” Adminiculum entered English in the mid-16th century.

The noun bricolage in French means “do it yourself,” formed from the verb bricoler “to do odd jobs, do small chores; make improvised repairs,” from Middle French bricoler “to zigzag, bounce off,” ultimately a derivative of the Old French noun bricole “a trifle.” The French suffix -age, completely naturalized in English -age, as in carriage, marriage, passage, voyage, comes from -āticum, a noun suffix from the neuter of the Latin adjective suffix -āticus. Bricolage entered English in the second half of the 20th century.

Leporine, “pertaining to or resembling a rabbit or hare,” a technical term in zoology, comes straight from the Latin adjective leporīnus, a derivative of the noun lepus (inflectional stem lepor-) “hare.” The etymology of lepus is obscure, but it may be related to Greek dialect léporis (Sicily) and lebērís (Marseille). Leporine entered English in the mid-17th century.

Cackleberry, “an egg, a hen’s egg,” is a piece of facetious American slang. The word is a compound of the verb cackle “to utter a shrill, broken cry such as a hen makes” and the common noun berry “small fruit without a pit,” also used often in compounds such as strawberry or gooseberry.