Word of the Day
segue
verb (used without object)
to make a transition from one thing to another smoothly and without interruption.
More about segue
Segue “to transition without interruption” is a loanword from Italian, in which it is the third-person singular form of seguire “to follow” in the present tense. In this way, “I follow” is seguo, “you follow” is segui, and “he follows” or “she follows” is segue. The infinitive seguire comes from Latin sequī “to follow.” What eventually happened in Vulgar Latin is that sequī became regularized as something like sequere before becoming French suivre, Italian seguire, and Spanish seguir. Note that Segway, the name of the personal vehicle, is based on a common misspelling of segue. Segue was first recorded in English in the early 1850s.
how is segue used?
Unlike many operas, this is one in which the libretto came first, and Sankaram tailors the music to fit the text, one mood segueing smoothly into another.
Insomniacs, fishers and other pre-dawn perambulators may want to turn their eyes skyward as Veterans Day proper segues into the holiday Monday, checking for fireballs from the Taurid meteor shower.
ratoon
noun
a sprout or shoot from the root of a plant, especially a sugarcane, after it has been cropped.
More about ratoon
Ratoon “a sprout from the root of a plant” is likely anglicized from Spanish retoño “sprout,” which is based on the verb retoñar “to sprout again in the fall,” from re- “again” and otoño “fall, autumn.” Spanish otoño and English autumn together come from Latin autumnus, which is of uncertain origin, even stumping expert linguists! Among the few proposals are connections to the Etruscan language, to Latin augēre (stem auct-) “to increase,” or distantly to English sere “dry, withered” (compare archaic English sere month “August”). Old English hærfest “autumn” is the source of modern English harvest. Ratoon was first recorded in English circa 1630.
how is ratoon used?
Sugarcane is one of the few crops that has seen an increase in planting area. But across Maharashtra, large fields of sugarcane ratoons—the new cane that grows from the stubble left behind from the previous year—are drying up instead of being nurtured to maturity.
Giant banana leaves, ratoons of sugar cane and bright orange guavas—set amid a jumble of sheds, trellises, fences and retaining walls—give the hill the look of a rural village carved from jungle.
pax vobiscum
phrase
peace be with you.
More about pax vobiscum
Pax vobiscum “peace be with you” is a loan from Latin that comprises pax “peace” and vōbīscum “with you.” Pax is the source of appease, pacify, pay, and peace; the noticeable variation in spelling stems from natural sound changes that occurred as Latin pax (stem pac-) evolved into Old French pais (and modern French paix). Vōbīscum is a compound of vōbīs, the prepositional object form of vōs “you,” and cum “with.” Similar constructions survive today in modern Romance languages, such as Spanish conmigo “with me” and Portuguese convosco “with you.” The singular equivalent of pax vōbīscum, said to one person, is pax tēcum, while “peace be with us” is pax nōbīscum. Pax vobiscum was first recorded in English in the 1810s.
how is pax vobiscum used?
Sholom Aleichem was a pseudonym assumed by Sholom Rabinowitz, born in 1859 in what is now Ukraine. In Hebrew, “sholom aleichem” is a greeting that means “peace be with you.” Who knows? Maybe if he wrote in Latin he would have called himself Pax Vobiscum.
“Pax vobiscum!” he called. Continuing in Latin, he said, “Peace to you this night. Please, put up your swords. You have nothing to fear from us.”