Tag: word origins

Word of the Week (WOW) is a weekly meme created by Heena Rathore P. It’s a fun way to improve vocabulary by learning new words every week.

To participate, simply do a post with your word and leave the link to it as a comment on Heena’s WOW post.

Here is my WOW for this week:

Word: Ethereal

Part of Speech:  Adjective

(Adverb: ethereally.  Noun: ethereality; etherealness)

 Pronunciation:  e – the – re -al     (ih – theer – ee – uh – l)

 Meaning:

1. Extremely light or delicate, especially in  an unnatural way; refined

2. Of the celestial spheres; heavenly

3. Relating to, containing, or resembling a chemical ether

Synonyms:  

1. ghostly, vaporous, wraithlike, waiflike, bodiless, fragile, frail, intangible, immaterial, incorporeal, diaphonous, non-physical

2. spiritual, sublime, divine, holy, Elysian, unearthly, otherworldly

Antonyms:

Substantial, earthly, worldy, corporeal, concrete, tangible, material

Word Origin:   

First documented use in English 1505-15 >  Latin aethere (us) > Greek aithérios 

Use in a sentence: 

1. Sarah gazed at the ethereal wings of a dragonfly.

2. Beyond the stars is the ethereal realm of the divine. (As in fantasy, mythology etc.)

3. Deborah was small, fair and ethereal.

4. The stained-glass windows gave the church an ethereal glow

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Note. This word is not to be confused with ephemeral, which means transitory or short- lived – like a mayfly. I like both words and the ways in which they can be used.

  If you would like to check out more interesting words then visit Heena’s page:

Word Treasure

Word of the Week (WOW) is a weekly meme created by Heena Rathore P. It’s a fun way to improve vocabulary by learning new words every week.

To participate, simply do a post with your word and leave the link to as a comment on Heena’s WOW post.

Here is my WOW for this week:

Word: Duplicity

Part of Speech:  Noun

Adjective: duplicitous

Plural: duplicities

Nearby Words:

duplicate, duplicating, duplication, duplicator,duplicature, duplicatus

 Pronunciation:

UK: due-plic-i-tee (dyu-plic-i-tee)

US: du-plic-i-ty (doo-plic-i-tee)

 Meaning:

1. Deliberate deceptiveness in behaviour or speech (especially by saying different things to two people).

2. An instance of deliberate deceptiveness; double dealing

3. The quality or state of being twofold or double

Synonyms:  

cunning, deceit, deceitfulness, deception, double-dealing, guile, shiftiness, dissimulation, fraud, hypocrisy

Antonyms:

candidness, directness, honesty, straightforwardness

Word Origin:  

1400-50 Late Middle English fron the Middle French duplicite. The roots of the word can be found in the Late Latin word, duplicatas and duplex.  The most common sense of duplicity today is deceitfulness. The roots of this meaning can be found in the initial  ‘dupl’ – from the Latin duplex, meaning twofold, or double.

Use in a sentence: 

1. Martha was not a woman for compromise or duplicity.

2. The salesman was not averse to a little duplicity in his dealings with customers.

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I particularly like the adjective of this word: duplicitous. I have a few duplicitous characters in my books. I also use the word perfidious, which can also be a synonym of duplicitous (but has other meanings as well, including unfaithful and treasonous). To me, both duplicitous and perfidious sound so much more interesting than just saying deceitful.

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If you would like to check out more interesting words then visit Heena’s page:

Word Treasure

Word of the Week (WOW) is a weekly meme created by Heena Rathore P. It’s a fun way to improve vocabulary by learning new words every week.

To participate, simply do a post with your word and leave the link to your post as a comment on Heena’s WOW post.

Here is my WOW for this week:

Word: Coterminous

Part of Speech:  Adjective

(Comparative: more coterminous, Superlative: most coterminous)

Adverb: coterminously or conterminously

 Pronunciation:  co – ter – min – ous (kō-tûr′mə-nəs)

 Meaning:

1. Having the same border or covering the same area

2. Being the same in extent; coextensive in range or scope

Synonyms:  

coetaneous, coeval, coexistent, coexisting, coextensive, coincident, coincidental, concurrent, contemporaneous, contemporary, commensurate, simultaneous, synchronic, synchronous, nearby, close, adjacent, neighbouring, immediate, adjoining, near, proximate,

Antonyms:

asynchronous, noncontemporary, nonsimultaneous, nonsynchronous, distant

Word Origin:

C17: from Latin conterminus, from con- + terminus – end, boundary

Use in a sentence: 

To illustrate the use of this word, here is a short poem, written by Heath Muchena on his blog, I of July:

I say this with some diffidence

that the world is full of struggles for recognition

coterminous with the quest for love and reverence

but also fears of indifference

and tears of rejection

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This is a lovely poem and shows that the word is not only used in connection with geography.  As does this sentence:

Language and thought are not strictly coterminous.

Now here are a couple of sentences which are about geography:

1. The Guidelines emphasize the importance of coterminous boundaries for agencies working in partnership.

2. Australia is the only country that is coterminous with a continent.

If you would like to check out more interesting words. then visit Heena’s page:

Word Treasure

Word of the Week (WOW) is a weekly meme created by Heena Rathore P. It’s a fun way to improve vocabulary by learning new words every week.

To participate, simply do a post with your word and leave the link to it as a comment on Heena’s WOW post.

Here is my WOW for this week:

Word: Bellicose

Part of Speech: Adjective

(Adverb: Bellicosely.  Noun: Bellicosity)

 Pronunciation: bel – i – kohs  (bel.ɪ.kəʊs)

 Meaning: 

Demonstrating aggression and willingness to fight.

Synonyms:

aggressive, hostile, threatening, antagonastic, trucculent, confrontational, argumentative, pugnacious, quarrelsome, belligerent, militant, combatative

British informal: stroppy, bolshie

N. American informal: strappy

Antonyms:

peaceable, non-aggressive, non-belligerent, incombatative, uncontentious 

Word Origin:  Late Middle English (1400 – 1450) from the Latin bellicosus (from bellum, meaning pertaining to war).

Use in a sentence: 

1. The fans had their say again and attitudes were conversational rather than bellicose and confrontational.

2. The warrior’s words were strident and bellicose.

If you would like to check out more interesting words then visit Heena’s page:

Word Treasure

Word of the Week (WOW) is a weekly meme created by Heena Rathore P. It’s a fun way to improve vocabulary by learning new words every week.

To participate, simply do a post with your word and leave the link to your post as a comment on Heena’s WOW post.

Here is my WOW for this week:

Word: Androgynous

Part of Speech:  Adjective

(Adverb:  Androgynously.  Noun: Androgyny )

 Pronunciation:  an-drog-y-nous  (an-droj’e-nes;  ænˈdrɒdʒ ə nəs)

 Meaning:

1. being both male and female; hermaphroditic.

2. having both masculine and feminine characteristics.

3. having an ambiguous sexual identity.

4. neither clearly masculine nor clearly feminine in appearance:

5. (biology) an individual animal or flower that has both male and female reproductive organs

Synonyms:  

cross-sexual, bisexual, unisexual, epicine, hermaphroditic

Antonyms:

 gendered 

(near antonyms: masculine, feminine)

Word Origin:  

Early 17th century from the Latin androgynus and the Greek androgynos

Use in a sentence: 

1. Rockin’ Reggie had the androgynous look of many rock stars.

2. He was a stunningly adgrogynous dancer.

Androgynous is an interesting word. I can appreciate how well it could be used in Sci-Fi novels and such like, to describe genderless beings.

In botany, androgynous is sometimes used instead of one of its synonyms, hermaphroditic. Examples of plants bearing both male and female reproductve organs include trees like birch, walnut oak and chestnut. The common plant, cuckoo pint, is often chosen as an example of a an androgynous flowering plant.  Here are a couple of pictures of it:

If you would like to check out more interesting words then visit Heena’s page:

Word Treasure