Word of the Week 10/27/19: Promiscuous

From Merriam-Webster:

Promiscuous (from Latin promiscuus “without distinction, taken from every different type”) has a range of meanings in English. The oldest of these is “composed of all sorts of persons and things” (as in “a promiscuous array of books” or “the promiscuous company at the tavern”). This meaning suggests a random assortment, not necessarily with negative implications.

Within the last few hundred years, promiscuous has added the usually negatively-tinged meanings “indiscriminate” (“promiscuous destruction by bombing”), “casual or careless” (“the president’s promiscuous dishonesty”), and of course, “not restricted to one sexual partner.”

Does this mean that the word itself is promiscuous? Not at all. It is not uncommon for English words to display this polysemous (“having multiple meanings”) character, and promiscuous is actually on the tidy end of the spectrum, as far as these things go.

From Wiktionary:

From Latin prōmiscuus (“mixed, not separated”), from prō (“forth”) + misceō (“mix”).
1. Made up of various disparate elements mixed together; of disorderly composition.
Synonym: motley
2. Made without careful choice; indiscriminate.
3. (derogatory) Indiscriminate in choice of sexual partners, or having many sexual partners.

Word of the Week 10/20/19: Bugbear

From Merriam-Webster:

1. an imaginary goblin or specter used to excite fear
2a: an object or source of dread
b: a continuing source of irritation

Bugbear sounds like some kind of grotesque hybrid creature from fable or folklore, and that very well may be what the word's creator was trying to evoke. When the word entered English in the 16th century, it referred to any kind of creature made up to frighten someone-most often a child; in 1592, Thomas Nashe wrote of "Meere bugge-beares to scare boyes." In the late 20th century, the word found new life as the name of a particular kind of creature in the role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons.

From Wikipedia:

A bugbear is a legendary creature or type of hobgoblin comparable to the bogeyman (or bugaboo or babau or cucuy), and other creatures of folklore, all of which were historically used in some cultures to frighten disobedient children.

Its name is derived from the Middle English word bugge (a frightening thing), or perhaps the old Welsh word bwg (evil spirit or goblin), or old Scots bogill (goblin), and has cognates in German bögge or böggel-mann (goblin), and most probably also English "bogeyman" and American English "bugaboo".

Word of the Week 10/13/19: Sibyl

From Lexico:

1. A woman in ancient times who was thought to utter the prophecies of a god.
2. (literary) A woman able to foretell the future.

From Old French sibile or medieval Latin sibilla, via Latin from Greek sibulla.

From Merriam-Webster:

Ancient writers refer to the existence of various women in such countries as Babylonia, Greece, Italy, and Egypt, through whom the gods regularly spoke. These sibyls were easy to confuse with the oracles, women who were likewise mouthpieces of the gods, at such sites as Apollo's temple at Delphi. The most famous sibyl was the Sibyl of Cumae in Italy, a withered crone who lived in a cave. Her prophecies were collected into twelve books, three of which survived to be consulted by the Romans in times of national emergencies. She is one of the five sibyls memorably depicted by Michelangelo on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.

From Wikipedia:

Until the literary elaborations of Roman writers, sibyls were not identified by a personal name, but by names that refer to the location of their temenos, or shrine.

Word of the Week 10/06/19: Fecalith

From Medicine Net:

Fecalith: A hard stony mass of feces in the intestinal tract. A fecalith can obstruct the appendix, leading to appendicitis. Fecaliths can also obstruct diverticuli. Also known as coprolith and stercolith.

From Wikipedia:

A fecalith is a stone made of feces. It is a hardening of feces into lumps of varying size and may occur anywhere in the intestinal tract but is typically found in the colon. It is also called appendicolith when it occurs in the appendix and is sometimes concomitant with appendicitis. They can also obstruct diverticula. It can possibly form secondary to fecal impaction. A fecaloma is a more severe form of fecal impaction, and a hardened fecaloma may be considered to be a giant fecalith. The term is from Greek líthos=stone.

Coprolith is also used to mean geologically fossilized feces

From the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) paper, Association between the appendix and the fecalith in adults:

Background
We sought to determine the association between the presence of a fecalith and acute/nonperforated appendicitis, gangrenous/perforated appendicitis and the healthy appendix.

Conclusion
Our data confirm the theory of a statistical association between the presence of a fecalith and acute (nonperforated) appendicitis in adults. There was also a significant association between the healthy appendix and asymptomatic fecaliths. There was no correlation between a gangrenous/perforated appendix and the presence of a fecalith. We conclude that the fecalith is merely an incidental finding and is not the primary cause of acute (nonperforated) or gangrenous (perforated) appendicitis, but merely an association. We postulate that the underlying cause is most often related to some other factor when fecaliths are found in patients with perforated or gangrenous appendices.

Word of the Week 09/29/19: Dowse

From Dictionary.com:

To search for underground water, minerals, etc, using a divining rod.

From Wikipedia:

Dowsing is a type of divination employed in attempts to locate ground water, buried metals or ores, gemstones, oil, gravesites, and many other objects and materials without the use of scientific apparatus.

Word of the Week 09/22/19: Germane

From Dictionary.com:

1. closely or significantly related; relevant; pertinent:
2. Obsolete. closely related.

From Vocabulary.com:

You can thank Shakespeare for the modern meaning of the adjective germane. The word originally referred to people who have the same parents. Shakespeare added the word's figurative meaning of objects being closely related or relevant when he used it in the play Hamlet.

From Wiktionary:

Variant form of german, adapted in this sense in allusions to its use in Shakespeare's Hamlet.
 - Having the same mother and father; a full (brother or sister). "brother-german"

From Merriam-Webster:

Relevant, Germane, Material, Pertinent, Apposite, Applicable, Apropos mean relating to or bearing upon the matter in hand. Relevant implies a traceable, significant, logical connection. Germane may additionally imply a fitness for or appropriateness to the situation or occasion. Material implies so close a relationship that it cannot be dispensed with without serious alteration of the case. Pertinent stresses a clear and decisive relevance. Apposite suggests a felicitous relevance. Applicable suggests the fitness of bringing a general rule or principle to bear upon a particular case. Apropos suggests being both relevant and opportune.

"Wert thou a Leopard, thou wert Germane to the Lion." So wrote Shakespeare in Timon of Athens (circa 1607), using an old (and now obsolete) sense of germane meaning "closely akin." Germane derives from the Latin word germen, meaning "bud" or "sprout," which is also at the root of our verb germinate, meaning "to sprout" or "begin to develop." An early sense of germane referred specifically to children of the same parents.

Word of the Week 09/15/19: Limpid

From Merriam-Webster:
1a. Marked by transparency
 b. Clear and simple in style
2. Absolutely serene and untroubled

Clear, Transparent, Translucent, Limpid mean capable of being seen through. Clear implies absence of cloudiness, haziness, or muddiness.  clear water  Transparent implies being so clear that objects can be seen distinctly.  a transparent sheet of film  Translucent implies the passage of light but not a clear view of what lies beyond.  translucent frosted glass  Limpid  suggests the soft clearness of pure water.  her eyes were limpid pools of blue

Since the early 1600s, "limpid" has been used in English to describe things that have the soft clearness of pure water. The aquatic connection is not incidental; language scholars believe that "limpid" probably traces to "lympha," a Latin word meaning "water." That same Latin root is also the source of the word lymph, the English name for the pale liquid that helps maintain the body's fluid balance and that removes bacteria from tissues.

From Dictionary.com:
First recorded in 1605–15, limpid is from the Latin word limpidus clear.

From Vocabulary.com:
1. clear and bright
2. transmitting light; able to be seen through with clarity
3. (of language) transparently clear; easily understandable