Word of the Day

Immemorial “extending back beyond memory or knowledge” ultimately comes from the Medieval Latin adjective immemoriālis, equivalent to the Latin negative or privative prefix im-, a variant of -in, and (liber) memoriālis "record (book).” Immemorial entered English in the early 17th century.

Fussbudget “one who is fussy or needlessly faultfinding” is a transparent compound of the nouns fuss “bustle, commotion” and budget “itemized list of funds or expenses.” The word entered English in the early 20th century; it became associated with the character Lucy Van Pelt in the comic strip Peanuts in the 1960s.

The uncommon English noun lagom “the principle of living a balanced, moderate life” comes from Swedish lagom, a fossil noun form in the dative plural used as an adverb meaning “just right, just the thing,” literally “according to custom or common sense.” Lagom comes from an unattested Old Norse plural neuter noun lagu “what is laid down,” which in Old Icelandic becomes lǫg “law, laws.” The Old Norse neuter plural noun lagu was taken into late Old English as a feminine singular noun lagu by the year 1000, becoming lawe in Middle English, and law in English. Lagom entered English in the mid-1930s.

Bounteous comes from Middle English bountevous, bounteuous, bontivous (and other variant spellings) “good, worthy, virtuous; knightly, valiant; generous, liberal,” from Old French bontieus, bontif (masculine), bontive (feminine) “benevolent, full of goodness, from Old French bonté, bontet (source of Middle English bounte, English bounty “generosity, generous gift”), from Latin bonitās (stem bonitāt-) “goodness, excellence.” The spelling bounteous arose in the early 15th century as if the etymology were bounte plus the adjective suffix -ous. Bounteous entered English in the second half of the 14th century.

The English adjective ambrosial comes from the Greek noun ambrosía “immortality; elixir of life, food of the gods." (Néktar is “the drink of the gods, nectar”). The initial a- of ambrosía is a variant of the prefix an- meaning “not, without, lacking,” as in atheist or anarchy. The b in ambrosía is a glide consonant between the m and the r. The mro is a derivative of mŗ-, a variant of the very common Proto-Indo-European root mer-, mor-, mŗ- “to die.” The variant mŗ- is also the source of Latin mors (stem mort-) “death,” Morta “goddess of death,” and morī “to die,” Armenian mard “man,” Sanskrit mŗtá- “dead,” and Slavic (Polish) martwy “dead.” The root variant mŗ- regularly becomes mur- in the Germanic languages, yielding murder in English and Mord “murder” in German. The root variant mor- is the source of Greek mortós and Sanskrit márta- “human (being), mortal,” and Old Persian martiya- “mortal, man.” The root variant mer- is the source of Hittite mert “died.” Ambrosial entered English in the second half of the 16th century.