Word of the Week 05/26/19: Imbroglio

From Merriam-Webster:

1a: an acutely painful or embarrassing misunderstanding
  b: scandal
  c: a violently confused or bitterly complicated altercation
  d: an intricate or complicated situation (as in a drama or novel)
2: a confused mass 

Imbroglio and "embroilment" are more than just synonyms; they're also linked through etymology. Both descend from the Middle French verb embrouiller (same meaning as "embroil"), from the prefix em-, meaning "thoroughly," plus brouiller, meaning "to mix" or "to confuse." ("Brouiller" is itself a descendant of an Old French word for broth.) Early in the 17th century, English speakers began using "embroil," a direct adaptation of "embrouiller." Our noun "embroilment," which also entered the language in the early 17th century, comes from the same source. Meanwhile, the Italians were using their own alteration of "embrouiller" : imbrogliare, meaning "to entangle." In the mid-18th century, English speakers embraced the Italian noun imbroglio as well.

From Vocabulary.com:

an intricate and confusing interpersonal or political situation

Word of the Week 05/19/19: Abstemious

From Merriam-Webster:

Marked by restraint especially in the eating of food or drinking of alcohol.

Abstemious and "abstain" look alike, and both have meanings involving self-restraint or self-denial. Both get their start from the Latin prefix abs-, meaning "from" or "away," but "abstain" traces to "abs-" plus the Latin verb tenēre (meaning "to hold"), while "abstemious" gets its "-temious" from a suffix akin to the Latin noun temetum, meaning "intoxicating drink."

From Dictionary.com:

c.1600, from Latin abstemius "sober, temperate," from ab(s)- "from" (see ab-) + stem of temetum "strong drink," related to temulentus "drunken." Technically, of liquor, but extended in Latin to temperance in living generally.

NB from Vocabulary.com:

This word has the vowels a, e, i, o and u in alphabetical order; the adverb abstemiously adds the y.

Word of the Week 05/12/19: Cromulent

From Wiktionary:
"Lisa the Iconoclast" is the sixteenth episode of The Simpsons' seventh season. It originally aired on the Fox network in the United States on February 18, 1996. The episode features two neologisms, embiggen and cromulent, which were intended to sound like real words but are in fact completely fabricated (although it was later discovered that C. A. Ward had used "embiggen" in 1884). Embiggen, coined by Dan Greaney, has since been used in several scientific publications, while cromulent, coined by David X. Cohen, appeared in Dictionary.com's 21st Century Lexicon.

The showrunners asked the writers if they could come up with two words which sounded like real words, and these were what they came up with. The Springfield town motto is "A noble spirit embiggens the smallest man." Schoolteacher Edna Krabappel comments that she had never heard the word embiggen until she moved to Springfield. Ms. Hoover, another teacher, replies, "I don't know why; it’s a perfectly cromulent word." Later in the episode, while talking about Homer's audition for the role of town crier, Principal Skinner states, "He's embiggened that role with his cromulent performance."

The meaning of cromulent is inferred only from its usage, which indicates that it is a positive attribute. Dictionary.com defines it as meaning fine or acceptable. Ben Macintyre has written that it means "valid or acceptable".

Word of the Week 05/05/19: Obsequious

From Grammarist:

Obsequious means servile, excessively obedient, overly-eager to please in a groveling manner. Obsequious enters the English language in the fifteenth century meaning prompt to serve, derived from the Latin word obsequiosus which means compliant, obedient, and from the Latin word obsequi meaning to accommodate oneself to the will of another. Obsequious behavior goes beyond compliance or obedience; it carries an unseemly connotation.

From Merriam-Webster:

An obsequious person is more likely to be a follower than a leader. Bear in mind that the word comes from the Latin root sequi, meaning "to follow." (The other contributor is the prefix ob-, meaning "toward.") "Sequi" is the source of a number of other English words, too, including "consequence" (a result that follows from an action), "sequel" (a novel, film, or TV show that follows an original version), and "non sequitur" (a conclusion that doesn’t follow from what was said before).

From Macmillan Dictionary:

Too eager to please someone, in a way that does not seem sincere

NB: not to be confused with obsequies, which are funeral rites