Thinkmap Visual Thesaurus

Monday, December 1st macabre Shall We Dance? Word of the Day:

Today's adjective is a byproduct of the compound French term danse macabre, "dance of death." On its own, the adjective means "about death" or "gruesome and horrifying." Since it's a French word, there are a number of pronunciation options in English: you can go for two syllables or three, and if you opt for the latter, you may be able to send little shivers of pleasure through your listeners by sending the r to your pharynx.

Tuesday, December 2nd vulpine How Clever Word of the Day:

Every respectable animal genus and family has a high-sounding Latinate adjective to characterize it, and for foxes, it's vulpine. The root is Latin vulpes, "fox," which is also the genus name of foxes in binomial taxonomy. Like many such adjectives, vulpine has also taken on figurative associations of foxes, so it can mean "crafty" or "cunning" as well.

Wednesday, December 3rd renegade Turncoat's Word of the Day:

Because of the shift in stress it's easy to overlook the relationship renegade and renege, but you shouldn't! They're from the same Latin verb, renegare, "deny." A renegade is one who reneges, that is, renounces a former loyalty, oath, or commitment. The -neg- part in both words also gives us, via different routes, negate and abnegation.

Thursday, December 4th foray For the Taking Word of the Day:

Raid has hardly any positive connotations so if you're inclined to conduct one, you might characterize it by the more genteel word foray, a near synonym. Though originally (and still) a verb, we use foray as a noun more frequently today, in the strict military sense, or to denote goal-oriented missions with more civilized takings, such as food.

Friday, December 5th repudiate Well I Never Word of the Day:

Today's verb comes with a guarantee that someone affected by it will be unhappy: to repudiate something means to deny its validity or authority, to reject it disapprovingly, or to refuse to acknowledge or pay it. It's originally from a Latin noun that referred toa preemptive divorce: rejection of a prospective spouse. Today people mostly repudiate doctrines, debts, and contracts.

Saturday, December 6th maxim Well Said Word of the Day:

You probably hear a maxim every day -- that is, a proverbial saying or general truth -- but you don't hear every day what this word has to do with maximum, to which it's obviously related. The missing link is the Latin phrase maxima propositio, "greatest proposition." The Latin term goes back to the 6th century but English didn't lay hold of maxim in its current meaning till the 16th.

Sunday, December 7th putrefy What's That Smell? Word of the Day:

All living things are subject to decay, and if your olfactory sense is working, you'll have evidence of this when things start to turn. The native English verb for this inevitable process is rot. The Latinate one is putrefy. It has a handful of easy-to-spot relatives: putrid, putrefaction, and the rather colorful putrescent.

Monday, December 8th heckle Peanut Gallery Word of the Day:

Next time you're just sitting around, combing flax, you might reflect that the verb for what you're doing, heckle, gave birth to the much more common meaning of the verb today: harass a public speaker or performer. The meaning that predominates today originally arose in Scotland. A similar relationship exists with two senses of tease, depending on whether the object is hair, or a person.

Tuesday, December 9th peregrination In Case You're Wandering Word of the Day:

Today's noun is the result of an add-on to a 16th century borrowing from French: the adjective peregrine, "tending to wander," which may be familiar from the falcon that bears this epithet. The next formation was peregrinate, "travel or wander," and soon thereafter, the peregrination was born: a wandering journey. The word pilgrim is distantly related.

Wednesday, December 10th philanderer Man's Man Word of the Day:

Today's noun presents a good case for doffing your etymologist's hat because it doesn't mean what its apparent roots might lead you to believe. A philanderer is a man who has casual relations with one or more women. It appears to come from roots that mean one who loves men. In fact it's probably from a Greek given name, Philander.

Thursday, December 11th saccharine Sweeter than Honey Word of the Day:

Like silicon and silicone, today's word also participates in a confusing word pair, the other member being the lookalike saccharin. Saccharine is properly an adjective and means "like sugar," and figuratively, overly sentimental or ingratiatingly friendly. It dates from the 17th century. The sweet chemical substance saccharin was not developed until two centuries later.

Friday, December 12th cataract Eyewash Word of the Day:

It seems a deficiency of imagination that English would use the same word for (1) a rushing waterfall, and (2) a clouding of the lens of the eye, but that's what you get with cataract. Etymologists explain the anomaly variously; the Greek root of the word detoured into Latin, whence the medical condition meaning later developed, according to some.

Saturday, December 13th dingy Low-Rent Word of the Day:

Once you've taken precautions to insure that you don't confuse today's word with the boat called a dinghy, the next step is to insure that you put the onomatopoetic word ding out of your mind. Dingy is pronounced with a soft g and means dirty, shabby, or squalid. It's often applied to living quarters or clothing. Dictionaries generally do not explore dingy's past, though some speculate it's related to dung. The word appeared in the late 17th century.

Sunday, December 14th iota Small is Beautiful Word of the Day:

Today's little word designates little things: first, it designates the letter of the Greek alphabet called iota. It being the smallest letter, iota came to stand for any small thing or minute amount. Iota is nearly always followed by of and preceded by a negation in modern usage, as in not one iota of courage. The word jot, though you might not guess it, is a descendant of iota, sometimes spelled jota.

Monday, December 15th vivacious Look Lively Word of the Day:

Life seems to be evenly distributed between males and females, so it's an anomaly that in usage, vivacious -- a word derived from Latin vivere, "to live" -- should have come to apply so much more frequently to females than males. Maybe it's connected with the fact that handsome, a word applied mainly to males, meant "easy to manipulate" in Middle English.