Word of the Day

The adjective palmary, “deserving the palm of victory; praiseworthy,” comes from the Latin adjective and noun palmārius. As an adjective, palmārius means “pertaining to palm trees”; as a neuter noun, palmārium means “masterpiece, masterstroke,” and somewhat less nobly, “the fee for an advocate who wins his case.” Palmārius is a derivative of the noun palma “palm (of the hand); the width of a palm (as a measurement); palm tree (so called from the shape of its leaves); a palm branch awarded to the winner in a contest, first place.” Palma comes from an earlier, unrecorded palama, from Proto-Indo-European pḷəmā, and is closely related to Greek palámē “hand, flat of the hand, means, device,” and also to Old Irish lām (Proto-Celtic loses initial p-), Old High German folma (Proto-Indo-European p becomes f in Proto-Germanic), and Old English folm, all meaning “hand, flat of the hand.” Palmary entered English in the mid-17th century.

Most Americans are familiar with matzo “unleavened bread in the form of large crackers,” because food stores routinely stock matzo on their shelves, especially just before Passover, which occurs in the early spring. Matzo comes via Yiddish matse (plural matses) from Hebrew maṣṣāh (plural maṣṣōth). Maṣṣāh comes from a West Semitic root meaning “to be or become sour, ferment.” Matzo entered English in the mid-17th century.

The English verb fustigate, “to criticize harshly; scold severely,” comes from Late Latin fustīgātus, the past participle of the verb fustīgāre “to beat to death with a cudgel.” Fustīgāre is a compound of the noun fustis "a stick, club, cudgel” and the combining form -igāre, a derivative of the simple, much overworked Latin verb agere “to do, act.” The same combining form appears in lītigāre “to go to law,” source of English litigate and litigation; fūmigāre “to smoke,” source of English fumigate and fumigation; and nāvigāre “to travel by ship, sail,” English navigate and navigation. Fustigate entered English in the mid-17th century.

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.