Another word a day

Another

Word A Day

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Also by Anu Garg

A Word A Day: A Romp through Some of the Most

Unusual and Intriguing Words in English

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Another

Word A Day

An All-New Romp

through Some of the Most

Unusual and Intriguing

Words in English

Anu Garg

John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

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Copyright © 2005 by Anu Garg. All rights reserved

Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey

Published simultaneously in Canada

Composition by Navta Associates, Inc.

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data:

Garg, Anu.

Another word a day : an all-new romp through some of the most unusual and intriguing

words in English / Anu Garg.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 13 978-0-471-71845-1 (pbk.)

ISBN 10 0-471-71845-9 (pbk.)

ISBN 13 978-0-471-77878-3 (cloth)

ISBN 10 0-471-77878-8 (cloth)

1. Vocabulary. 2. English language—Glossaries, vocabularies, etc. I. Title.

PE1449.G3345 2006

428.1—dc22 2005004284

Printed in the United States of America

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

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All words are pegs to hang ideas on.

—HENRY WARD BEECHER

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Acknowledgments xiii

Introduction 1

1 Words to Describe People I 5

opsimath ● agelast ● losel ● nebbish ● cruciverbalist

2 Earls Who Became Words

(or Places That Became Words) 9

orrery ● cadogan ● Oxfordian ● derby ● Yarborough

3 Words Having Origins in Chess 14

zugzwang ● checkmate ● gambit ● stalemate ● endgame

4 Words That Appear to Be Misspellings of

Everyday Words I 18

passible ● monestrous ● cloture ● nutriment ● assoil

5 Archaic Words 21

clepe ● sennight ● anon ● gainsay ● hearken

6 Toponyms 24

Chautauqua ● Pax Romana ● Gibraltar ● seltzer ●

Kilkenny cats

vii

Contents

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7 Words about Books and Writing 28

roman à clef ● orihon ● amphigory ● conspectus ● magnum opus

8 Words Borrowed from Yiddish 31

chutzpah ● mensch ● zaftig ● kvetch ● schlep

9 Terms from the World of Law 36

estoppel ● laches ● solatium ● sui juris ● mittimus

10 Words That Appear to Be Misspellings of Everyday

Words II 40

eagre ● imprest ● endue ● biennial ● quacksalver

11 Words Borrowed from Arabic 44

alembic ● nadir ● jihad ● houri ● talisman

12 Words Formed Erroneously 48

niddering ● obsidian ● helpmeet ● zenith ● derring-do

13 What’s in a Name? 52

randy ● tony ● ted ● bobby ● brad

14 Words from Poetry 56

cataract ● dreary ● nosegay ● collyrium ● tarry

15 Fishy Words 61

minnow ● gudgeon ● remora ● inconnu ● tope

16 Discover the Theme I 66

ubiety ● irade ● ambit ● estival ● lanate

17 Terms Employing Various Nationalities 71

French leave ● Chinese wall ● Roman holiday ● Irish bull ●

Dutch auction

18 Words with Double Connections 75

diplopia ● double entendre ● ambsace ● satchel ● doppelgänger

viii CONTENTS

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19 Words Related to the Calendar 79

ides ● bissextile ● Greek calends ● menology ● fin de siècle

20 False Friends 83

sacrilegious ● scission ● oust ● impregnable ● mellifluous

21 Red-Herring Words 87

undulate ● fartlek ● conversant ● assize ● valorize

22 Words Related to the Human Body 90

nares ● oxter ● pollex ● nevus ● glossal

23 Words Related to Buying and Selling 93

emptor ● nummary ● duopoly ● monopsony ● chandler

24 Miscellaneous Words 98

astrobleme ● pudency ● aporia ● remontant ● loricate

25 Words That Have Changed Meaning with Time 101

demagogue ● decimate ● feisty ● egregious ● officious

26 Words about Words 107

hapax legomenon ● metaphor ● vulgat ● hyperbole ●

metaplasm

27 Anglo-Saxon Words 111

meed ● fen ● lief ● fain ● wight

28 Words Borrowed from Other Languages 115

cumshaw ● smorgasbord ● baksheesh ● taboo ● honcho

29 Words from Medicine 118

sequela ● nosology ● idiopathy ● placebo ● nyctalopia

30 Numeric Terms 123

sixty-four-dollar question ● eighty-six ● twenty-twenty ●

deep-six ● catch-22

CONTENTS ix

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31 Kangaroo Words 132

indolent ● rapscallion ● amicable ● frangible ● scion

32 What Does That Company Name Mean? 135

cingular ● lucent ● prudential ● vanguard ● suppurate

33 Words with Interesting Etymologies 139

erudite ● sobriquet ● indite ● pentimento ● cockamamie

34 Words to Describe People II 143

scrofulous ● ugsome ● gormless ● scalawag ● sciolist

35 Words about Collecting and the Study of Things 147

scripophily ● deltiology ● exonumia ● notaphily ● vexillology

36 Words from the World of Law II 150

voir dire ● en banc ● parol ● depone ● distrain

37 Words Derived from Other Languages 153

sangfroid ● dragoman ● hinterland ● apparat ● Blighty

38 Words about Words II 156

exonym ● mononym ● cryptonym ● teknonym ● matronym

39 Words Borrowed from African Languages 161

zombie ● veld ● juju ● spoor ● mumbo jumbo

40 Metallic Words Used as Metaphors 165

goldbrick ● silver bullet ● brassy ● leaden ● tin ear

41 Words Related to Movies 170

bogart ● cinematheque ● jeune premier ● McGuffin ●

cineaste

42 Discover the Theme II 174

extemporize ● impresario ● macroscopic ● postdiluvian ●

plausive

x CONTENTS

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43 Miscellaneous Words II 178

telic ● saltant ● conurbation ● trade-last ● tardigrade

44 Words That Aren’t What They Appear to Be 182

beestings ● pythoness ● lambent ● redoubt ● archimage

45 Words of Horse-Related Origins 185

desultory ● equitant ● tattersall ● spavined ● hors de combat

46 Words of Horse-Related Origins II 189

cheval-de-frise ● Hobson’s choice ● harridan ●

cheval de bataille ● cavalier

47 Words with Origins in War 192

nom de guerre ● antebellum ● polemic ● bellicose ● casus belli

48 Words from Latin 196

stat ● ceteris paribus ● qua ● terra firma ● via media

49 Words to Describe Your Opponents 200

facinorous ● ventripotent ● dasypygal ● saponaceous ● yegg

50 Discover the Theme III 204

orotund ● draggle ● trunnel ● pinnate ● lability

51 Words Borrowed from Native American Languages 207

sachem ● wampum ● high-muck-a-muck ● manitou ●

powwow

52 Loanwords from Spanish 211

amigo ● loco ● duende ● disembogue ● armada

Answers 215

Web Resources: More Fun with Words 219

Index of Words 221

CONTENTS xi

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Thanks to all the linguaphiles who are a part of Wordsmith.org.

Thanks to my literary agents, Marly Rusoff and Judy Hansen.

Thanks to Hana Lane, my editor at John Wiley & Sons.

Thanks to Todd Derr and Eric Shackle at Wordsmith.

Thanks to Carolanne Reynolds, the grammar goddess.

Thanks to my wife, Stuti, and our daughter, Ananya.

Thanks to my parents.

Thanks to my guru.

xiii

Acknowledgments

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