Word of the Day

In Zen Buddhism, satori means “sudden spiritual enlightenment.” The Zen sense of satori is a more specific sense of the noun satori “comprehension, understanding,” a derivative of the verb satoru “to perceive, comprehend, awaken (spiritually).” Satori entered English in the first half of the 18th century.

Integument, “covering, coating,” comes straight from Latin integumentum “covering, shield, guard, wrapping,” a derivative of the verb integere “to cover, overlay,” itself a compound of the preposition and prefix in, in- “in, on, upon” and the simple verb tegere “to cover, close, bury.” Tegere comes from the Proto-Indo-European root (s)teg-, (s)tog- “to cover.” The variant teg- forms Latin tēgula “a roof tile” (source of English tile). The variant tog- yields Latin toga “toga” (the loose outer garment worn by Roman male citizens in public). The variant (s)teg- yields stégē “covering” and stégos “roof” in Greek, which in turn forms the first element of English stegosaurus, literally “roofed or covered lizard” (from the row of bony plates along its back). Integument entered English in the first half of the 17th century.

The adjective totemic, “relating to something, such as a natural object or an animate being, venerated as an emblem by a group or individual,” comes from Ojibwa (also spelled Ojibway and Chippewa), an Algonquian language now spoken mostly in the Great Lakes region. (The Algonquian language family extends from Labrador westward to the Rocky Mountains, west-southwestward through Michigan and Illinois, and southwestward along the Atlantic coast to Cape Hatteras.) In Ojibwa ninto·te·m means “my totem,” oto·te·man “his totem” (probably originally “my/his clan-village-mate,” a derivative of the verb stem o·te·- “dwell in a village"). Totemic was first used in English in the first half of the 19th century.

Tocsin, “a signal, especially an alarm sounded on a bell,” comes via Old French toquesin, touquesaint, tocsaint from Provençal tocasenh. Tocasenh is a compound made up of the verb tocar “to strike” (French toucher, English touch), from Vulgar Latin toccāre “to touch” and senh “a bell, note of a bell,” from Medieval Latin signum “a bell,” from Latin signum “a mark or sign; a signal.” Tocsin entered English in the second half of the 16th century.

Irrefragable, “not to be disputed or contested,” comes from Late Latin irrefragābilis, literally “unable to be broken back,” and an easy word to break down into its components. The prefix ir- is the variant that the Latin negative prefix in- (from the same Proto-Indo-European source as English un-) takes before r-. The element re- means “back, back again,” thoroughly naturalized in English; here re- forms part of the verb refragārī “to oppose (a candidate); resist; militate against” (fragārī is possibly a variant of frangere “to break”; refragārī means “to break back”). The suffix -ābilis is formed from the connecting vowel -ā- and the adjective suffix -bilis, which shows capability or ability, and is the source of English -able. Irrefragable entered English in the first half of the 16th century.