In his 1907 book Days off and other Digressions, Henry Van Dyke included this line: “…and the tale of the season’s angling told from the beginning with many embellishments and divagations.” “Divagation” comes from the latin word “divagari”, which means “to wander.” It’s an obscure word, but not quite as rare as you might think.… Continue reading

To find a word with an unusual application, you don’t have to look any further than the kitchen. I”m not talking about “stove,” which is a word that originally meant a hot room like a steambath or sauna. That’s pretty close, though; a kitchen stove is also called (in the US) a “range.”  “Range” dates… Continue reading

When the weather is unusually cold, there’s flooding, or possibly an invasion of annoyed ferrets looms, humicubation is not advisable, particularly for extended periods. “Humicubation,” as you probably haven’t guessed, means “lying on the ground.”  The word first appeared in the 1650s in a religious tract written by the Bishop of Derry in Ireland. He… Continue reading

Somebody who hates spending any money and tries to hold onto it forever might be called a “miser,” a “cheapskate,” or a “piker.” That last one, “piker,” has an interesting history, and more than one origin story.  “Piker” was first used in the 1500s, and didn’t have anything to do with money at all —… Continue reading

English has quite a few words for different types of fabric, and many of them have pretty interesting and mysterious origins. Take “corduroy,” for example. It’s a kind of thick cloth with ridges. It’s generally used in colder weather, because it does a pretty good job of insulating. Depending on the sources you use, you… Continue reading

“‘He has got his deserts’, said Joconda.” Jaconda said that in an 1882 novel by someone with the pen name “Ouida.” Both the novel and the writer (whose real name was Maria Louise Ramé) are not much remembered now, but the phrase “got his deserts” or “got his just deserts” is still around.  The phrase is… Continue reading

The word has gotten a lot rarer since its peak, probably in the mid-20th century, but you’ll still occasionally see someone referred to as a “galoot.” Galoots are usually large, as in a “big galoot.” The “big” might be redundant though; there doesn’t seem to have been a galoot of any other size since the… Continue reading

If you’re a zoologist drawn to study animals that live (or supposedly live) in lakes, what you’re involved in is “dracontology.” It sounds like it ought to be the study of dragons, which is because it’s derived from the Greek word “drakon,” which means “serpent” and is also the root of “dragon.” By the way,… Continue reading

The more technically advanced machines we surround ourselves with, the more familiar we seem to get with one thing or another going haywire. But just hold on…”going haywire?” Before duct tape was a handy way to repair just about anything, there was hay wire. It was the wire used to hold bales of hay together,… Continue reading