Word of the Day

Tuesday, March 27, 2018


[ kiz-mit, -met, kis- ]


fate; destiny.

learn about the english language

What is the origin of kismet?


how is kismet used?



It was kismet that it happened with you, and today!

Put your wits to the test! New quizzes added weekly.


Get the Word of the Day delivered daily
Monday, March 26, 2018


[ juh-neth-lee-ak ]



learn about the english language

What is the origin of genethliac?


how is genethliac used?




Sunday, March 25, 2018




characterized by melody; songlike.

learn about the english language

What is the origin of ariose?


how is ariose used?


Chelsea Quinn Yarbro, A Feast in Exile, 2001


Saturday, March 24, 2018


[ awr-uh-flam, or- ]


any flag, banner, or standard, especially one that serves as a rallying point or symbol.

learn about the english language

What is the origin of oriflamme?

Originally an oriflamme was the banner or ensign that the French kings received before going into battle from the abbot of Saint-Denis, the site of a Benedictine abbey founded c626 in a city of the same name, located northeast of Paris, and named after Saint Denis, a martyr of the 3rd century who is venerated as a patron of the French people. Oriflamme means “golden flame” in Old French, from Latin aurea flamma “golden flame,” referring to the golden flames on the red background of the banner. Oriflamme entered English in the 15th century.

how is oriflamme used?

I was so afraid you might think we ought to sort of wave the oriflamme of our unfettered love.

Mary Renault, Purposes of Love, 1939

… the huge and motley mass, throughout the Union, which marched under the oriflamme of the bank, had every where repeated and reiterated the same cry.

Thomas Hart Benton, Thirty Years’ View, 1854
Friday, March 23, 2018


[ dih-ras-uh-neyt ]



learn about the english language

What is the origin of deracinate?

The root of deracinate “to uproot” is the Late Latin noun rādīcīna “root,” from Latin rādīx (stem rādīc-), from which English derives radical and eradicate. Latin rādīx comes from the Proto-Indo-European root wrād- (and its variants) “branch, root.” The noun wrādios becomes Latin rādius “staff, rod, beam, radius (of a circle), ray (of light),” from which, via French, English has ray (of light or energy). The suffixed form wrād-mo- becomes Latin rāmus “branch, twig,” from which English derives ramify and ramification. Proto-Indo-European wrād- becomes wrōt- in Germanic, from which Old Norse derives rōt, which becomes root in English. Deracinate entered English in the late 16th century.

how is deracinate used?

Our parents sent us to those schools to deracinate us, to obliterate our class markings.

Malcolm Knox, Summerland, 2000

In little more than a century, millions of human beings in Europe and America … have undertaken to deracinate themselves from the natural continuum and all that it has to teach us of Man’s relationship to the nonhuman more completely than ever before in the human past.

Theodore Roszak, "Can We Survive the Artificial Environment?" The Rotarian, June 1971
Thursday, March 22, 2018


[ sol-i-tood-n-air-ee-uh n, -tyood- ]


a person who seeks solitude; recluse.

learn about the english language

What is the origin of solitudinarian?

Solitudinarian was first recorded in 1685–95.

how is solitudinarian used?

She was such a warm, beautiful woman, so popular, so very full of love and verve and yet you, her only son, are an anthropofugal solitudinarian.

David Foster, Sons of the Rumour, 2009

… Charron says that no one with a capacity for public good and usefulness ought to neglect that capacity. Thus, the able solitudinarian is to be severely censured.

M. Andrew Holowchak, Thomas Jefferson: Moralist, 2017
Wednesday, March 21, 2018


[ dis-joon ]


Scot. Obsolete. breakfast.

learn about the english language

What is the origin of disjune?

The rare word disjune is formed from the Old French prefix des-, dis-, which comes from the Latin prefix dis- “apart, asunder, in two, in different directions” (the prefix dis- is related to the Latin numeral duo “two”). The Latin prefix may also be used like the English prefix un- to express the reverse or negative of the positive, e.g., untie, undo. Old French desjeün is thus an “unfast.” The Old French element -jun, -jeün comes from the Latin adjective jējūnus “hungry, fasting” and by extension “poor, barren.” In Medieval Latin the noun jējūnum (the neuter singular of the Latin adjective jējūnus) means “middle part of the small intestine,” so called because the jejunum was often found empty after death. The etymology of Latin jējūnus is unknown. The noun disjune entered English in the late 15th century; its use as a verb dates from the late 16th century.

how is disjune used?

Take a disjune of muscadel and eggs!

Ben Jonson, The New Inn, 1629

And when the two comrades were in the midst of their disjune the knight began to ask the monk (who knew everybody) about the barge he had seen the day before.

Arthur Machen, "The Spigot Clerk's Second Tale," The Chronicle of Clemendy, 1888


Get the Word of the Day delivered daily