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Post by ARENA on Oct 25, 2016 12:05:25 GMT
The children were imbued with a passion for nature by their parents, both biologists.
IMBUE: From the Latin to dyr or stain.
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Post by ARENA on Oct 27, 2016 11:17:00 GMT
SINCERE: Originally sine cere; without wax (latin)
Unscrupulous merchants who worked in marble and found a blemish, would hide it with wax. Honest ones were 'sine cere'
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Post by ARENA on Oct 27, 2016 12:27:03 GMT
myriad
noun |
Definition: Ten thousand
ten thousand
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Post by ARENA on Oct 29, 2016 12:35:16 GMT
Did you know....Osculate comes from the Latin noun osculum, meaning "kiss" or "little mouth."
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Post by althea on Oct 29, 2016 15:03:07 GMT
I didn't know about sin cere. That is very interesting.I did Latin at school(also a bit of kissing),
so osculate is familiar to me.
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Post by ARENA on Nov 1, 2016 11:55:53 GMT
Gravid comes from Latin gravis, meaning "heavy." It can refer to a female who is literally pregnant, and it also has the figurative meanings of pregnant: "full or teeming" and "meaningful." Thus, a writer may be gravid with ideas as she sits down to write; a cloud may be gravid with rain; or a speaker may make a gravid pause before announcing his remarkable findings.
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Post by ARENA on Nov 2, 2016 14:48:26 GMT
TEMERARIOUS...........
If you have guessed that temerarious may be related to the somewhat more common word temerity, you are correct. Temerarious was borrowed into English in the early 16th century from Latin temerarius, which in turn derives from Latin temere, meaning "blindly" or "recklessly." Temerity, which arrived in English over a century earlier, also derives from temere; another descendant is the rare word intemerate, meaning "pure" or "undefiled." Temere itself is akin to Old High German demar, Latin tenebrae, and Sanskrit tamas, all of which have associations with darkness.
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Post by ARENA on Nov 3, 2016 12:09:52 GMT
Echelon is a useful word for anyone who is climbing the ladder of success. It traces back to scala, a Late Latin word meaning "ladder"
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Post by ARENA on Nov 4, 2016 16:22:34 GMT
DICKER: In ancient Rome, a decuria became a unit of bartering. The word entered Middle English as dyker and eventually evolved to dicker.
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Post by ARENA on Nov 5, 2016 10:12:05 GMT
CAVALCADE
When cavalcade was first used in English, it meant "a horseback ride" or "a march or raid made on horseback." Edward Hyde, Earl of Clarendon, used it this way in his 1647 History of the Rebellion and Civil Wars in England: "He had with some Troops, made a Cavalcade or two into the West." From there came the "procession of riders" meaning and eventual applications to processions in a broader sense. Cavalcade came to English via French from the Old Italian noun cavalcata, which in turn came from an Old Italian verb, cavalcare, meaning "to go on horseback." Ultimately, these words came from the Latin word caballus, meaning "horse." The combining form –cade also appears in other words describing particular kinds of processions, such as motorcade or the less common aquacade.
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Post by lana on Nov 5, 2016 11:41:38 GMT
Apricity
The sun’s apricity is its warmth in winter.
Apricity is a princess of a word, literally meaning Aprilness and implying a yearning for April. The warmth of the winter sun reminds us of the early days of spring.
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Post by ARENA on Nov 7, 2016 12:59:42 GMT
AURIFEROUS
Students in chemistry class learn that the chemical symbol for gold is Au. That symbol is based on aurum, the Latin word for the element. In the 17th century, English speakers coined auriferous by appending the -ous ending to the Latin adjective aurifer, an offspring of aurum that means "containing gold" or "producing gold." (The -fer is from ferre, a Latin verb meaning "to produce" or "to bear.") Not surprisingly, auriferous is a term that shows up in geological contexts. Some other descendants of aurum include aureate ("of a golden color" or "marked by grandiloquent style"), auric ("of, relating to, or derived from gold"), and the noun or ("the heraldic color gold or yellow").
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Post by althea on Nov 7, 2016 17:17:44 GMT
Being a lover of gold in all it's forms,I am familiar with aurum. It's jolly useful in cryptic crosswords too.
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Post by ARENA on Nov 12, 2016 11:30:13 GMT
Facetious—which puzzle fans know is one of the few English words containing the vowels a, e, i, o, u in order—came to English from the Middle French word facetieux, which traces to the Latin word facetia, meaning "jest."
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Post by norty on Nov 12, 2016 18:22:03 GMT
Facetious—which puzzle fans know is one of the few English words containing the vowels a, e, i, o, u in order—came to English from the Middle French word facetieux, which traces to the Latin word facetia, meaning "jest." Going to use this word for next week's top spelling group, loving the puzzle fact about the vowels. 😀 |
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