A.Word.A.Day Archives from https://wordsmith.org/awad -------- Date: Mon Dec 1 12:01:02 AM EST 2025 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--quidam X-Bonus: One trouble with living beyond your deserved number of years is that there's always some reason to live another year. And I'd like to live another year so that Nixon won't be President. If he's re-elected I'll have to live another four years. -Rex Stout, novelist (1 Dec 1886-1975) [Nixon resigned in 1974.] Birdwatchers have their sparrows and buntings. Plant lovers their sedums and ferns. Why should people-watchers settle for plain old _folks_, _dudes_, and _that guy over there_? Whether you study the human animal in its natural habitats (coffee shops, checkout lines, Zoom meetings) or simply enjoy observing their colorful plumage and confusing mating calls, precision is key. You need the right taxonomy to identify everyone from the faceless stranger to the officious bureaucrat. Consider this week's A.Word.A.Day as your field guide to _H. sapiens_ in all their lexical variety. quidam (KWEE-dam, KWID-uhm) noun 1. An unknown person. 2. An unimportant person. [From Latin quidam (someone), from quis (who). Earliest documented use: 1579.] NOTES: Depending on how it's used, a quidam can be just a stranger, or a stranger so unremarkable they barely cast a linguistic shadow. Think of it as the Renaissance version of "some rando". It's the verbal equivalent of a blurred face in a documentary. It's the perfect word for when someone asks about that guy over there, and you reply, "Frankly, my dear, I don't give a quidam." "The Son of Man", 1964 https://wordsmith.org/words/images/quidam_large.jpg Art: René Magritte https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Son_of_Man "It's pretty risky to invite quidams from the audience, nameless strangers, onto the stage." Liz Nicholls; Cirque's Quidam Delivers the Magic; Edmonton Journal (Alberta, Canada); Jun 29, 2004. -------- Date: Tue Dec 2 12:01:01 AM EST 2025 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--rudesby X-Bonus: The question is whether or not you choose to disturb the world around you, or if you choose to let it go on as if you had never arrived. -Ann Patchett, writer (b. 2 Dec 1963) This week's theme: Words for people rudesby (ROODZ-bee) noun A rude, boorish person. [From Old French ruide, from Latin rudis (rough, crude). Earliest documented use: 1566.] NOTES: The same root gives us rudimentary and the rudiments you wish this person had learned. Quidam vanishes into the crowd, the rudesby forces the crowd to part -- usually with his elbows. He thinks he's the Great Gatsby, but he's only the Great Rudesby. Detail from "The Peasant Dance" 1567 https://wordsmith.org/words/images/rudesby.jpg Art: Pieter Bruegel the Elder "'If you'll pardon my saying so, Mrs. Chestnut, your husband should toss that gent... person... out on his ear. Imagine the effrontery to insult the hostess.' https://wordsmith.org/words/effrontery.html 'Thank you for your timely rescue, Mister Toombs, but I really don't think that rudesby knew I was from South Carolina.'" F.J. Freitag; Dissolution; Xlibris; 2002. -------- Date: Wed Dec 3 12:01:01 AM EST 2025 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--galoot X-Bonus: All a man can betray is his conscience. -Joseph Conrad, novelist (3 Dec 1857-1924) This week's theme: Words for people galoot or galloot (guh-LOOT) noun A clumsy, eccentric, or foolish person. [Of unknown origin. Earliest documented use: 1808.] NOTES: The term is often used affectionately. Unlike the rudesby (who is intentionally rude), the galoot is physically or socially awkward. It's often used as a term of exasperated affection: "Aw, you big galoot!" It's the sort who knocks over a vase, apologizes to the vase, then trips on the apology. See also schlemiel https://wordsmith.org/words/schlemiel.html . "Pierrot", c. 1718-1719 https://wordsmith.org/words/images/galoot_large.jpg Art: Jean-Antoine Watteau See usage examples in Vocabulary.com's dictionary: https://www.vocabulary.com/dictionary/galoot "Sometimes lumbering though always well-intentioned, ["Day of the Fight" is] an ode to tales of lovable, scrappy galoots who keep a glint in their pummeled eyes." Robert Abele; Movie Review; Los Angeles Times; Dec 12, 2024. -------- Date: Thu Dec 4 12:01:02 AM EST 2025 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--jobsworth X-Bonus: Is there any religion whose followers can be pointed to as distinctly more amiable and trustworthy than those of any other? If so, this should be enough. I find the nicest and best people generally profess no religion at all, but are ready to like the best men of all religions. -Samuel Butler, writer (4 Dec 1835-1902) This week's theme: Words for people jobsworth (JOBZ-wuhrth) noun A petty official who insists on following trivial rules at the expense of common sense. [From the expression “It’s more than my job’s worth”. Earliest documented use: 1970.] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bd0ATvyrswI Purple Crocodile, a 2004 ad for the Dutch insurance company OHRA NOTES: Picture a minor official in a petty position insisting on following the rules to a T and saying "It’s more than my job’s worth to not follow the rules (and risk getting fired)." The term was immortalized by Jeremy Taylor's late-60s song "Jobsworth", a gentle roast of the man who says: "I don't care, rain or snow, whatever you want, the answer is no." See the performance here: https://youtu.be/fz44_Sp0K8A (video 4 min.) The word was popularized by the 1970s British TV show "That's Life!" While English speakers complain of red tape, a Dutch ad inspired a far more colorful term in the Netherlands: purple crocodile (Paarse krokodil). This comes from a famous 2004 insurance company ad where a jobsworth refuses to give a little girl her lost inflatable crocodile, which is sitting right there, until her mother fills out a form (front and back, block letters) and returns the next morning between 9 and 10 am. If you've ever been told "Computer says no" or had a form rejected because you used the wrong shade of blue ink, congratulations: you've met a jobsworth in the wild. "Can a government jobsworth tell us why we can't hold matches in partially-filled outdoor stadiums with fans appropriately distanced and masked?" Shougat Dasgupta; Though Games in Front of Empty Stands Make Little Sense, the Action Continues Unabated; India Today (New Delhi); Sep 28, 2020. -------- Date: Fri Dec 5 12:01:02 AM EST 2025 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--roturier X-Bonus: Once a man has tasted freedom he will never be content to be a slave. That is why I believe that this frightfulness we see everywhere today is only temporary. Tomorrow will be better for as long as America keeps alive the ideals of freedom and a better life. -Walt Disney, entrepreneur and animator (5 Dec 1901-1966) This week's theme: Words for people roturier (ro-TOOR-ee-ay, -uhr) noun A person of low rank; a commoner. [From Old French roture (newly cultivated land), from Latin rumpere (to break). Earliest documented use: 1586.] NOTES: Old money has been looking down on new money, old land on new land, and old titles on new ones, since forever. Before the French Revolution rearranged the social furniture, a roturier was someone who held land by paying rent rather than by bloodline. It was considered a few rungs below the nobility who held feudal estates. The aristocrats broke bread; the roturiers broke soil. See also, plebeian. https://wordsmith.org/words/plebeian.html "The Stone Breakers", 1849 https://wordsmith.org/words/images/roturier_large.jpg Art: Gustave Courbet "Propose to her, marry her. Her parents aren't here any more to say you can't because you're a roturier." Peter De Polnay; The Loser; W.H. Allen; 1973. -------- Date: Mon Dec 8 12:01:02 AM EST 2025 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--zugunruhe X-Bonus: All men should strive to learn before they die what they are running from, and to, and why. -James Thurber, writer and cartoonist (8 Dec 1894-1961) Each year I send a handful of words to the artist Leah Palmer Preiss http://www.leahpalmerpreiss.com/ and then... I wait. Inspiration cannot be rushed. While waiting, I ponder our roles in this world. I respect all skills from plumbers to programmers, but artists occupy a special frame in my heart. A plumber can fix a leak or clog in an hour (and thank goodness for that!), and you soon forget about it. But an artist creates a portrait that lingers in your memory for years. I admire anyone who follows their creative compass. It's easier to get hired to fix a faucet than to paint a portrait, yet artists keep choosing the path where the pay is uncertain but the passion is unmistakable. Are you an artist? Tell us about your craft, whether you work with paints or pixels, clay or code, wood or marble, or something that defies tidy categories. Share on our website https://wordsmith.org/words/zugunruhe.html or email us at words@wordsmith.org. Please include your location (city, state). And while you browse this week's illustrated words, if Leah's art brings you delight, let her know at (curiouser at mindspring.com). So often we admire quietly, but we all need a splash of appreciation now and then. See her previous years' art here. https://wordsmith.org/awad/leah.html zugunruhe (TSOOK-oon-roo-uh) noun Restlessness at the beginning of a migration period. [From German Zugunruhe, from Zug (move, migration) + Unruhe (anxiety, restlessness). Earliest documented use: 1950.] NOTES: If you have ever felt a tingle of anxiety before a move, even an in-town move, you have experienced zugunruhe. Migratory animals, especially birds, feel it too. Zugunruhe was originally observed in caged birds that would flutter wildly at night during migration season, even if they had never migrated before. Around 4:45 pm on Fri, do you see a zugunruhe at your workplace as employees instinctively feel ready to migrate to the nearest happy hour? The German word Zug, meaning move or migration, also appears in chess: zugzwang. https://wordsmith.org/words/zugzwang.html https://wordsmith.org/words/images/zugunruhe_large.jpg Art: Leah Palmer Preiss http://www.leahpalmerpreiss.com/ "Among songbirds in fall, cool temperatures intensify zugunruhe and warm temperatures diminish it, and the birds usually wait for nights with steady northerly winds to give them a push south." Scott Weidensaul; Living on the Wind; North Point Press; 2000. -------- Date: Tue Dec 9 12:01:01 AM EST 2025 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--imbroglio X-Bonus: Nothing so soothes our vanity as a display of greater vanity in others; it makes us vain, in fact, of our modesty. -Louis Kronenberger, writer (9 Dec 1904-1980) This week's theme: Illustrated words imbroglio (im-BROHL-yo) noun 1. A difficult, confusing, or embarrassing situation. 2. A confused heap or tangle. [From Italian imbroglio (entanglement), from im- (in) + brogliare (to tangle, embroil). Earliest documented use: 1753.] See usage examples in Vocabulary.com's dictionary: https://www.vocabulary.com/dictionary/imbroglio https://wordsmith.org/words/images/imbroglio_large.jpg Art: Leah Palmer Preiss http://www.leahpalmerpreiss.com/ "Amid the swirl of affairs, scandals, and imbroglios that make up this astonishing life, one element remains fixed: [Alma] Mahler-Werfel’s inexhaustible passion for music and the arts." Alex Ross; Femme Vitale; The New Yorker; Feb 10, 2025. -------- Date: Wed Dec 10 12:01:03 AM EST 2025 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--vaticinate X-Bonus: Tell all the Truth but tell it slant-- / ... The Truth must dazzle gradually / Or every man be blind. -Emily Dickinson, poet (10 Dec 1830-1886) This week's theme: Illustrated words vaticinate (vuh-TIS-uh-nayt) verb tr., intr. To prophesy or predict. [From Latin vates (prophet) + canere (to sing, utter). Earliest documented use: 1623.] NOTES: Given the roots (prophet + sing), I'm imagining the weather forecast delivered as an opera. Everyday predicting is for weather people in front of green screens; vaticinating is for the Oracle at Delphi https://wordsmith.org/words/delphic.html sitting on her tripod, inhaling vapors, and speaking in riddles. See usage examples in Vocabulary.com's dictionary: https://www.vocabulary.com/dictionary/vaticinate https://wordsmith.org/words/images/vaticinate_large.jpg Art: Leah Palmer Preiss http://www.leahpalmerpreiss.com/ "[Gene Youngblood] proceeds to vaticinate the creative and technological advances that will ensue." Thomas Beard; Cosmic Consciousness; Artforum (Los Angeles, California); Mar 2020. -------- Date: Thu Dec 11 12:01:02 AM EST 2025 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--janiform X-Bonus: Let us not forget that violence does not live alone and is not capable of living alone: it is necessarily interwoven with falsehood. Between them lies the most intimate, the deepest of natural bonds. Violence finds its only refuge in falsehood, falsehood its only support in violence. Any man who has once acclaimed violence as his method must inexorably choose falsehood as his principle. -Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, novelist, Nobel laureate (11 Dec 1918-2008) This week's theme: Illustrated words janiform (JAN-uh-form) adjective Having two faces, sides, or contrasting aspects. [After Janus, the Roman god of doors, gates, and transitions. Earliest documented use: 1814.] NOTES: The Roman god Janus was depicted with two faces looking in opposite directions. A near synonym is Janus-faced, https://wordsmith.org/words/janus-faced.html but be careful! Janus-faced may also imply deceit, while janiform is usually just descriptive. You don't want to accidentally insult a statue. The month of January is named after Janus because it looks back at the old year and forward to the new one. Ideally, being janiform means having 20/20 vision in hindsight and foresight. https://wordsmith.org/words/images/janiform_large.jpg Art: Leah Palmer Preiss http://www.leahpalmerpreiss.com/ "Susan Sontag famously evoked a janiform conception of illness in the introduction to her seminal book, 'Illness as Metaphor', writing, 'Illness is the night side of life, a more onerous citizenship. Everyone who is born holds dual citizenship, in the kingdom of the well and in the kingdom of the sick.'" Chris Shields; All in the Family; Cineaste (New York); Fall 2020. -------- Date: Fri Dec 12 12:01:02 AM EST 2025 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--opsomaniac X-Bonus: He who allows oppression, shares the crime. -Erasmus Darwin, physician, scientist, reformer, and poet; grandfather of Charles Darwin (12 Dec 1731-1802) This week's theme: Illustrated words opsomaniac (op-so-MAY-nee-ak) noun A person with a craving for a particular food. [From Greek opson (delicacies) + -mania (excessive enthusiasm). Earliest documented use: 1842.] https://wordsmith.org/words/images/opsomaniac_large.jpg Art: Leah Palmer Preiss http://www.leahpalmerpreiss.com/ "Deb, you really are quite the sushi opsomaniac." Caitlin Lovinger; Personal Magnetism; The New York Times; Aug 23, 2019. -------- Date: Mon Dec 15 12:01:02 AM EST 2025 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--fettle X-Bonus: Writing is like carrying a fetus. -Edna O'Brien, writer (15 Dec 1930-2024) If you know the English language the way you know a loved one's quirks, you already know this: kibosh https://wordsmith.org/words/kibosh.html is always put on things (never taken off), living is eked https://wordsmith.org/words/eke.html out (never in), and people run (never stroll) amok. https://wordsmith.org/words/amok.html Human language works like humans. Logic makes occasional guest appearances, but habit runs the household. We keep doing things not because they make sense, but because that's how they've always been done. Language tags along, nodding, not asking questions. Some words in English now live almost exclusively inside set phrases. Take fro in "to and fro" (it's short for from). Outside that pairing, fro has long gone. These are known as fossil words. They're mostly obsolete, except where they've been preserved in idioms, like insects in amber or trilobites in limestone. This week, we'll brush the dust off five of them. fettle (FET-l) noun State or condition. [From English dialect fettle (to make ready), probably from Old English fetel (girdle, belt). Earliest documented use: 1748.] NOTES: You'll encounter this word almost exclusively cohabiting with fine, as in fine fettle. To be in fine fettle is to be ready for action, much like a knight girding his belt (the word's ancestor). While the noun is a fossil in general English, the verb fettle is busy doing ceramics (trimming the rough edges) and metallurgy (lining a furnace hearth), and sometimes getting nouned in these senses. "Juno Borrowing the Belt of Venus", 1781 https://wordsmith.org/words/images/fettle_large.jpg Art: Élisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juno_Borrowing_the_Belt_of_Venus See usage examples in Vocabulary.com's dictionary: https://www.vocabulary.com/dictionary/fettle "The economy was in fine fettle, apart from Germany, then as now the 'sick man of Europe'." Peak Europe Turns 25; The Economist (London, UK); Jun 8, 2024. -------- Date: Tue Dec 16 12:01:01 AM EST 2025 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--kilter X-Bonus: Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has. -Margaret Mead, anthropologist (16 Dec 1901-1978) This week's theme: Fossil words kilter (KIL-tuhr) noun Proper or usual state or order. [Of unknown origin. Earliest documented use: 1582.] NOTES: This term is the quintessential negative fossil. We constantly find things off-kilter or out of kilter, but you rarely hear of something being in kilter. Newly discovered evidence of how the Leaning Tower of Pisa went off-kilter https://wordsmith.org/words/images/kilter_large.jpg Photo: Imgur https://imgur.com/gallery/lightly-less-generic-tourist-leaning-tower-of-pisa-forced-perspective-photo-c3Khy See usage examples in Vocabulary.com's dictionary: https://www.vocabulary.com/dictionary/kilter "He remained stable on his bar, and I was sent spinning. Knocked off-kilter, I was completely lost in the air and totally unprepared for how to handle this type of situation." Carolyn Pioro; Finding Light in the Dark; Chatelaine (Toronto, Canada); Mar 2013. -------- Date: Wed Dec 17 12:01:01 AM EST 2025 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--wreak X-Bonus: Patriotism is often the cry extolled when morally questionable acts are advocated by those in power. -Chelsea Manning, activist and whistleblower (b. 17 Dec 1987) This week's theme: Fossil words wreak (reek) verb tr. To cause or inflict. [From Old English wrecan (to drive out or avenge). Earliest documented use: before 1150.] NOTES: When people wreak something, it's usually havoc. Occasionally vengeance, sometimes destruction. The result might be a wreck, but it's never "to wreck havoc". It's also used exclusively in the negative, as you don't wreak peace or order. "The Course of Empire: Destruction", 1836 https://wordsmith.org/words/images/wreak_large.jpg Art: Cole Thomas https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Course_of_Empire_(paintings)#/media/File:Cole_Thomas_The_Course_of_Empire_Destruction_1836.jpg/2 See usage examples in Vocabulary.com's dictionary: https://www.vocabulary.com/dictionary/wreak "People with money to burn can buy their way up the ladder [in video games], hard work be damned. It seems hypercapitalism, having already wreaked havoc on the real world, has come for the world of play." Clive Thompson; Insert Credit Card to Continue; Mother Jones (San Francisco, California); May/Jun 2023. -------- Date: Thu Dec 18 12:01:02 AM EST 2025 Subject: A.Word.A.Day--tenterhook X-Bonus: The most potent weapon in the hands of the oppressor is the mind of the oppressed. -Steve Biko, anti-apartheid activist (18 Dec 1946-1977) This week's theme: Fossil words tenterhook (TEN-tuhr-hook) noun One of various hooks used for stretching cloth on a frame. [From tenter (a frame for stretching cloth to dry during manufacturing), from tendere (to stretch) + hook, from Old English hoc. Earliest documented use: 1480.] NOTES: The word is typically used in the phrase "on tenterhooks" meaning in a state of suspense or anxiety, like nerves pegged to a frame. Tenterhook https://wordsmith.org/words/images/tenterhook_large.jpg Image: H. Barns & Son / Wikimedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tenterhook Tenterhook frames https://wordsmith.org/words/images/tenterhook_frames_large.jpg Photo: Russel Wills / Geograph https://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/5762310 Tenterhook frame with cloth https://wordsmith.org/words/images/tenterhook_with_cloth_large.jpg Photo: Chiome-gold / Wikimedia https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Tenterhooks.jpg See usage examples in Vocabulary.com's dictionary: https://www.vocabulary.com/dictionary/tenterhook "The movement of a tiger around coal mines ... continued to keep forest officials on tenterhooks for the second consecutive day on Saturday." Tiger Movement Near Coal Mines; Telangana Today (Hyderabad, India); Dec 13, 2025.