Word of the Day

As an adverb, peradventure means “maybe, possibly, perhaps”; as a noun, peradventure means “chance, doubt, or uncertainty.” Peradventure comes from Middle English paraventur(e), peradventure (and 20 other spelling variants), from Old French and Anglo-French par aventure, peradventure. Par is an 11th-century development of Latin and Old French per “through, by, by means of.” Adventure comes from Middle English aventure, avento(u)r, adventure, from Old and Middle French aventure “destiny, fate, chance; risk, peril,” from Medieval Latin (rēs) adventūra “(thing) about to come, (thing) going to happen.” Adventūra is the future participle of the Latin verb advenīre “to come to, arrive at, reach; (of conditions) to arise, develop; (of possessions) to come into the hands of.” Peradventure entered English about 1300.

Palaver, “profuse and idle talk; chatter," comes from Portuguese palavra “word, talk, speech" by way of sailors' slang. Portuguese was commonly used as a trading language on the West African coast, and palaver came into English first in the sense "a parley or conference, typically between Europeans and the Indigenous people of a region, especially in West Africa.” Portuguese palavra and its Castilian counterpart palabra come from Latin parabola “comparison, explanatory illustration,” and in Late Latin (and especially in Christian Latin), “allegorical story, parable, proverb.” Metathesis, the transposition of consonants, is common in Spanish and Portuguese: the syncopated form parabla (from parabola) becomes palavra in Portuguese and palabra in Spanish, just as Latin mirāculum “miracle” becomes milagro in Spanish and milagre in Portuguese. Palaver entered English in the early 18th century.

The adjective lacustrine, “relating to a lake; living or growing in lakes,” is a technical term used in geology (lacustrine strata, lacustrine deltas) and biology (lacustrine plants, lacustrine fauna). Lacustrine comes from French or Italian lacustre “relating to a lake” and the naturalized English adjective suffix -ine. The French and Italian adjectives are irregularly formed from Latin lacus “lake, pond, pool,” and the Latin adjective suffix -estris, -estre, on the analogy of Latin palustris, palustre “swampy, marshy,” formed from palūs “swamp, fen.” Lacustrine entered English in the first half of the 19th century.

Dentifrice, “a paste or other preparation for cleaning the teeth,” comes via Middle French from Latin dentifricium, a compound of denti-, the stem and combining form of dens “tooth,” and -fricium, a derivative of the verb fricāre “to rub, chafe, massage.” The Romans made a dentifrice of the ashes of murex shells, which is not recommended by the American Dental Association. Dentifrice entered English in the first half of the 15th century.

The adjective sartorial, “relating to tailors or tailoring,” is a derivative of the Late Latin noun sartor (inflectional stem sartōr-) “a tailor,” a derivative of the verb sarcīre “to patch, mend.” One of the many duties of Roman censors was to let out contracts for the repair and maintenance of public buildings, roads, bridges, etc., the technical phrase for these operations being sarta tecta (neuter plural) “repairs,” literally “mended roofs, patched roofs, weatherproof buildings.” But as Rome’s power grew, so did opportunities for corruption in the competition for lucrative contracts. Sartorial entered English in the first half of the 19th century.