Etymologie, Etimología, Étymologie, Etimologia, Etymology, (griech.) etymología, (lat.) etymologia, (esper.) etimologio
CC Kokosinseln (Keelinginseln), Islas Cocos (Islas Keeling), Îles Cocos (Îles Keeling), Isole Cocos (Isole Keeling), Cocos Islands (Keeling Islands)
Diktionär, Diccionario, Dictionnaire, Dizionario, Dictionary, (esper.) vortaroj

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September 2008 Archives

• Terms with Numbers: 40 winks | paint-by-numbers | the 400 | 23 skidoo (pie wagon) | ninety-nine | quaver (demiquaver, semidemiquaver, hemisemidemiquaver, quasihemisemidemiquaver)
• Learning New Words: peloton | tawse | Sitzfleisch | repechage | cloisonné | electronic ink | ruched
• Portmanteau ("Blend") Words: splog | squiggle | galumph | blither | mocktail | cyborg | sexile
• Personalities: loquacious | garrulous | voluble | scapegrace | misocapnist | crepe-hanger | pillock (haver)

August 2008 Archives

• Painterly Terms: impasto | craquelure | cleavage | (line/reline (moating, weave impression) | aqueous cleaning | pentimento | inpainting (overpainting, raked)
• Shade and Shadow: Tenebrism (chiaroscuro) | sombrero (somber, ranchero) | skiamachy | ascian (harmattan, amphiscian, Periscian) | squirrel | umbra (penumbra) | gnomon (skiagraphy)
• Eponyms Once Again: silhouette | Barbie doll | klieg light | ritzy | Raffles | Zelig | Icarusian
• Gulliver's Travels and other Swiftisms: Lilliputian | Big-endian | | senectitude | Laputan | ad infinitum

July 2008 Archives

• US Independence Day: unremitting | manumission | John Hancock | consanguinity | hackneyed | sufferance | Benedict Arnold
• Speeches and Orations: philippic | soapbox | jeremiad | panegyric | epilogue | homily | declamation (soliloquy)
• Ancient Metal Elements (metaphorically): silver tongued | tin god | iron curtain | | quicksilver | lead-foot | gold star
• Lingo of Corporate Takeovers: pac man defense | staggered board | greenmail | poison pill | white knight
• Oxymorons: tender offer | pianoforte | sophomore (sophomoric, sophomania) | oxymoron | black gold | neoconservative (idiot savant) | preposterous

June 2008 Archives

• 2008 Scrips Spelling Bee: tralatitious | guerdon | diener | piacular | torii | senectitude | tonneau
• Knitting Lingo: knit (purl) | Stockinette or Stocking Stitch (Garter Stitch, Ribbing) | tinking (frogging) | felting (spit-splice) | stash (stash enhancement, stash diving, souvenir stash) | UFO (BUFO, FO, WIP, SIP, KIP, KAL, LYS) | cast-on (cast-off / bind-off)
• Newspapers give less-obscure words: doughty (herpetologist) | pandit | neuron (synapse) | to kneecap | Manichean | erstwhile | miscreant
• Words better known as negatives: exorable | evitable | vincible | regardful | corrigible (ruly) | maculate (immaculate) | gainly (gain, ungainly)

May 2008 Archives

• Of Politics and Politicians: reptilian | prevaricate | Punch and Judy show | bombastic | Grand Guignol | logrolling | earmarks (earmarking)
• More Short Words: skep | knurl (knurling) | cadge | plage | lido | ween (prate) | ret | scutch
• Beer, Glorious Beer: brewster | spile (shive) | gastropub | rathskeller | estaminet | beer pong | malt
• Glacial Geology: esker | cirque (cwm) | kame | drumlin | sérac (crevasse) | fjord | tarn

April 2008 Archives

• Psychology Words: parapraxis | fugue | syntonic | neurasthenia | folie à deux | conation | Munchausen syndrome (factitious disorder, hypochondria, malingering)
• Noble Eponyms: yarborough | mithridatism | orrery | Tupperware | pompadour | mausoleum | Solomon
• Book: The Physician: coracle | metheglin (infuse, physick, cathartic) | haysel | swath | hawk (as a verb, to hawk) | aquiline (shagreen) | rood
• Mistaken Science: cataract | viper | remora | carotid | ether (Ethernet) | toadstool | pituitary
• Animals as Metaphor: owlish | leonine (Leonine verse) | struthionine | albatross | ursine | waspish | coltish

March 2008 Archives

• Fossil Words: | hem and haw | hue and cry | dribs and drabs | | kit and caboodle | nook and cranny
• More surviving fossils: whelm | hoar (hoarfrost, hoary) | fangled as in newfangled) | fettle (as in fine fettle) | cahoots | woebegone | short shrift
• Archaic Words: lief | arrant | eftsoons | thorp (betide) | whoreson (umbustious) | hight (hostler, ostler, palfrey) | clepe
• Para-words: | parable | paraplegia | paranoia | paraschite | parody

February 2008 Archives

• Pregnancy, from Z to A: zygote (ectopic) | chloasma | tocology | enceinte | gravid | midwife toad | parturient (parturition)
• Logic, Reasoning and Thought: maieutic (Socratic, hebamic) | chop logic | paralogism | sophism | induction | dialectic | hypercorrection

January 2008 Archives

• Making and Using Words: neologism (inter alia) | hapax legomenon | bahuvrihi | sniglet | inkhorn terms | meme | back-formation | portmanteau word (portmanteau)
• The Sorcerer, by Gilbert and Sullivan: clarion (clarion call, knell, lay) | escutcheon | comely | tush (pule) | navvy | necromancy (nativity, puffery) | nosology | philology
• Eponyms again: Zamboni | Beretta (magazine, biretta) | Jacuzzi (derringer) | Quasimodo | axel | salchow | lutz
• It’s a jungle out there!: lionize | porcelain | catspaw | cat | lapdog | gallium | boustrophedon
• Short words (and similar doublets): shoat/stoat (ermine) | muzzy/mazy | smelt/spelt | scruff/scurf (pendulous) | quirt | tope | swale/sward

December 2007 Archives

• Bodily Conditions: borborygm | eructation | suppurate (bubo, bubonic) | bruxism | somnolent | blain (chilblain)
• Kinds of People: janissary | voluble | endomorphic | younker | fashionista | reactionary | misoneism | naïf
• What's new?: neophyte | neoteric | apophoret | neoteny | Hogmanay | qualtagh

November 2007 Archives

• freerice.com: sastruga | parhelion (sun-dog, paraselene, moon dog) | rampike (rampick) | fauteuil (piedmont) | caracole | lucarne | gosport (slipstream, tandem)
• Eponyms once again: Tommy Atkins | jerrican | BVDs | jaegers | Haussmannize | guyot | Mickey Finn | horsmandering
• Book: The Sea: haulm | cackhanded | strangury | lour | etiolate | apotropaic | unctuous

October 2007 Archives

• Disagreeable Sorts: vulgarian | lickspittle | Grobian (parricide) | clodhopper | fussbudget | curmudgeon | Sassenach
• What's our theme?: temulent | escarpment | kinesthesia (proprioception) | agnate | mystagogue | internaut | nolens volens
• Interesting Etymologies: redingote (dingo) | sabot (sabotage) | demijohn | étui/etwee (huswife) | ostracize
• Book: Extraordinary Popular Delusions: vis et armis | venial | pottage | sylph | undine | auditory | immure | endue | indue | circumjacent | gambol | rick | evolution | stultify | purloin | grimoire | prognosticate | irrefragable | coeval | diablerie | list of mancy words

September 2007 Archives

• Tasty Words: bonne bouche, ambrosia, nectar, gustable, sapid, viands, kickshaw
• Overeating: guttle, fress, trencherman, edacious (suppurate), hork, gourmandize, raven | ravin (trencher)
• New Beasts in OED: puppy-dog eyes, bunny slope, chili dog (chili), hamster wheel, bird-dog, sick puppy
• Rip Van Winkle: weathercock (cockerel), obsequious, curtain lecture (malleable, ductile, pliant), assiduity, gallligaskins, alacrity (clamber), phlegm, Babylonish
• Domineering Women: petticoat government, harpy, termagant, virago, branks, cucking stool (trebucket), Xanthippe, harridan

August 2007 Archives

• Collections and collectors: exonumia, cartophily, scriptophily, deltiology, rariora (Wundercammer), ephemera, phillumenist, philography (chirography)
• Specific "collective" nouns: kindle, clowder, murmuration, warren, giggle, gaggle, skein
• Collections of Writings: Festschrift, gazetteer, onomasticon, prosopography, florilegium, sottise, sottisier, analects (chrestomathy), anthology, corpus
• Savory Collectives - E pluribus unum: smorgasbord, farrago, mishmash, olio, olla-podrida, potpourri, salmagundi, hodgepodge

July 2007 Archives

• Monk words: monkish, lubber (abbey-lubber), banoffi pie, mulligan, mulligan stew or mulligan, whirling dervish
• Animating Adjectives: piquant (pique, pike¹, pike², turnpike), frenetic, obstreperous, mordant, salubrious, timorous, strident
• What's Our Theme?: jalousie, milquetoast, vinaceous (cerulean), loudhailer, sternutation (aeolipyle), autocide, praseodymium

June 2007 Archives

• Words from Folk Etymology: wedlock, helpmate, sweetheart, lapwing, bridegroom, stark-naked, maidenhead
• Antiquated Words - Oddballs Only: catchpole | catchpoll, pismire, pissant, toad-eater, gandermooner, feague, stirrup-cup (deoch an doris)
• Eponyms from Shakespeare: Caliban, Dogberry, benedict, Romeo, Prospero
• Words with Religious Connection: imprimatur, voodoo, orthodoxy, votary, Jesuitical, hassock, ahimsa

May 2007 Archives

• More Game/Sport Words: crapshoot, debonair, bandy-legged, well-heeled, stymie, screwball, hat trick
• Words of the Theater: greenroom, claque, proscenium (terrane), histrionic, wing it, dramaturg
• Words from Arabic: hagira, loofah, minaret (masjid), giaour, dura mater (pia mater, arachnoid mater, meninges), feinghee, kismet
• 2007 Scripps National Spelling Bee: coryza, Schuhplattler, tournure, genizah, punaise, Belial, calenture

April 2007 Archives

• Coined Words: halitosis, blurb, ecdysiast, cromulent, dorgi, agnostic, scofflaw
• Short Words: lek, ort, pyx (antiphon), erg, oda, nob, vig
• Words from Games: taw, roquet, chukka (conk), pelota, cesta, oche, muleta, squidger, squop

March 2007 Archives

• People You Know: deipnosophist, dandiprat, wowser, neophyte, war horse, dotard, leman
• People you may know, chevalier d'industrie, femme fatale, enfant terrible, mouton enragé, bon vivant, éminence grisé, idiot savant
• Occupations Surviving as Surnames: chandler, cooper, webster, wainwright, granger, , fletcher
• Eponyms from Surnames from Occupations: , Fletcherize (stonking), Grangerize, lister (listerine), mesmerize, napier, Napier's Bones (Gunter's scale), bowdler (bowdlerize), shepardize

February 2007 Archives

• Action words: verbs: asperse, bloviate, racket, scud, insidiate, thrum, eruct
• The Vulgar Tongue: raphe, rantallion, ithyphallic, karezza, fiesty, manustupration, onanism
• Eponyms again: priapic, procrustean, Jonah, Goliath, negus, sandwich
• Miscellaneous Words: labile, percipient, wabbit, agalaxy, soporific, divagate, tzigane, zeitgeber

January 2007 Archives

• Types of Writing: amphigory, tushery, prolix, aphoristic, apothegm, sententious, gnomic
• Colo(u)rful Words: purple prose, silver-tongued, , Cyber Monday, white paper, blue book, green card, white noise
• Words from the Crimean War: thin red line, balaclava, cardigan, mamelon, Nightingale, raglan, anabasis, katabasis
• Obscure Water-Words: anadromous (grilse), catadromous, phreatic, vadose, bilge, sparge, clepsydra, natant, aspergill | aspergillum, aspersorium

December 2006 Archives

• Phrases from Latin: mutatis mutandis, mea culpa, ceteris paribus, caveat emptor, sine qua non, vox populi, de gustibus
• Graphic Words: tachygraphy, chirography, cacography, dittography, haplography, pantograph (heodolite), agraphia, steganography
• Eponyms from Literature: Svengali, Faustian, Chicken Little, trilby, fedora, grandfather clock, waldo
• Words from Heinlein: obstipate, hypergolic, caltrop, hemocyanin, lettre de cachet, heterodyne, atavism, contretemps, legerdemain

November 2006 Archives

• Dirksenian Prose, rheum, sesquipedalian, diapason, grandiloquence, Chautauqua, rapscallionry, floriated
• Egyptology: ankh (caduceus, sistrum), scarab, shabti, faience, natron (desiccate), Rosetta Stone, cartouche
• More toponyms: canopic (viscera), bialy, doolally, K Street (parsimonious, metonymy), Beltway, limousine
• One Day | One Newspaper: mecca, iconic, nascent, nonagenarian (fête), cognitive dissonance, kowtow, infographics

October 2006 Archives

• Hiding and Secrecy: camarilla, doggo, in camera, latitation, priest's hole, star chamber
• Words of War and Revolt: palace revolution, dragoon (importunate), casus belli, sortie, jihad, polemology, antebellum
• More Words of War: banzai attack | banzai charge, brevet, Maginot line, Kulturkampf, Kriegspiel, cantonment, saber rattling
• Toponyms: zabernism, Trojan horse, troy, Sodom, jodhpurs, panama hat, baldachin

September 2006 Archives

• Eponyms from the Ancient Greeks: apollo, Icarian, daedal, solon, pyrrhonism, Apollonian, Dionysian (fatuous), Zoilus, Zoilist (flyter)
• Vibrant Verbs: simper, divagate, wamble, calumniate (obloquy), sunder, obnubilate, roister
• Words of Double Meaning: confabulate (dowager), talus, vamp, slough, tump, mead, isinglass (bung)
• The French Revolution: tumbrel, bastille (oubliette), sans culotte, ancien régime, franc-tireur, tricolor

August 2006 Archives

• Insulting Words: recreant, poltroon (omadhaun), subdolous, benighted, slubberdegullion
• Sensory Words: hircine (hirsute), treacly, empyreumatic, alliaceous, toothsome, sialagogue, formication
• Words from Wordcraft's "Bluffing Game": slub, rhytiscopia, ningimmer, impignorate
• Words of Art: putto, abbozzo, maulstick | mahlstick, chiaroscuro, giclée, lithograph, serigraphy, stipple, contrapposto

July 2006 Archives

• Fireworks: chrysanthemum shell (peony shell) | shell, ground burst (gerb) | maroon | hummer, whizzer | tourbillion | brocade, kamuro
• Geography Words: graticule (shikari) | cartogram, cartographer, choropleth | grabben, horst | orographic | moraine | swidden | prorupt
• Words from Hawaiian: humuhumunukunukuapuaa | lanai | wahine | ukulele, luau | haole | muumuu | lei, haku
• Volcano Words: aa, pahoehoe | lahar | solfatara (apoplexy) | fumarole (magma) | caldera | tephra

June 2006 Archives

• Words from our board: digital shoplifting | captcha (bot) | whomperjawed | heiligenschein (glory) | POSSLQ, hypergamy | swive | godemiche, olisbos
• Spanish Land-word Loanwords: bolson (bivouac) | sierra | llano | paramo (puna) | cuesta | arroyo (hogback) | cay
• Words from Spanish: camarilla | salver (morocco) | vaquero, buckaroo | duende | vamoose | sympatico | quinella, perfecta, trifecta
• F-word thoughts: flibbertigibbet | foofaraw (mano-a-mano) | fustilugs (scullion, rampallian) | farrago | furbelow | flocculent | flubdub, flapdoodle

May 2006 Archives

• Terms from Horse Racing: across the board | dark horse | hands down | get one's goat | shoo-in | also-ran - a loser in a race or contest | front runner
• Akeelah and the Bee: plexure | trouvaille | miscible | ratiocinate | terete | graveolent | semelfactive Roscian - eponym: eminent as an actor (or actress)
• Eponyms: Roscian | thespian | Mutt and Jeff | Oscar | oersted | tontine | tomcat (crib)
• Toponyms: tabby (taffeta) | tarantula, tarantism, tarantella | artesian | Stepford | solferino | magenta | Boston fern;

April 2006 Archives

• From the poems of Guy W. Carryl: lacerate, coping, pungent | epithet, bric-à-brac, vulpine | dolce far niente, flippant, torpid | terrapin, expeditious, unction | Tartarean, phillippic | mordacious, pugnacious, rapacious | barrow | objet d'art, borough, shire
• One Week of the Newspaper: Gresham's Law | alluvial, quantitate | rentier | Zukunftsangst | cosset | perdurable, perdure | anthropic, anthropic principle
• Time for More Time: vespertine | postprandial | matutinal | antejentacular | crepuscular | aurorean | nudiustertian | sennight
• Words of Deception and Trickery: fourberie | chicane | chouse | obreptitious | tregetry, legerdemain

March 2006 Archives

• Astronomy terms, and metaphor: black hole | apogee (orthography) | meteoric | nutation | light year (billion) | nebula | constellation
• False Starts and New Beginnings: alligator | jade | munition (ammunition) | | rass | eke (nickname) | umpire (noumpere) |
• Eponyms - outrageous and/or obscure: Athanasian wench (quicunque vult) | hooch | isabelline | Mahernia (Quisqualis) | phryne
• Basketball terms used figuratively: jump ball | slam dunk | full-court press | tip-off | airball | fast-break | nothing but net

February 2006 Archives

• In Honour of Charles Dickens: bumbledom (beadle, choleric) | Tapleyism | gamp | Scrooge | Chadband | podsnap |
• Terms of Wordplay: wellerism | Tom Swiftie (croaker) | lipogram | ludic | rebus | cruciverbalist | rhopalic
• Peculiar Newfoundland English: dwy (twy, dally) | spell | yaffle | crannick | gowithy (withy) | bakeapple (whortleberries) | droke
• The Color Black: black | blackjack (truncheon) | necromancy | blackwash (whitewash) | blackshirt | Ebonics | black sheep | melancholy | touchstone

January 2006 Archives

• Eponyms from World War II: Lord Haw Haw (Spenglerian) | Maginot line | Luger (jackboot) | Toyko Rose | K-ration (climactic) | Garand (Browning machine gun) | Rosie the Riveter
• Lazy People: layabout | chairwarmer | dabster (dab) | faineant | fainéant (faineant deity) | sluggard | goldbrick | lollygagger
• Antedating the OED: majorette | drum majorette | manhandling | mail slot | man-hating (misogyny, misandry) | mass market | mass of maneuver | mass producer
• Waters of the World: lacustrine | riparian (riverine, riprap, gabion) | pelagic (cetacean) | palustrine (paludal) | neritic (bathyal, abysmal, hadal, continental slope, benthic/benthonic, bathypelagic) | estuarial (kelt, limnology, oceanography, oceanology)
• "Untranslatable" Words from German: Korinthenkacker | Feierabend | fisselig | Drachenfutter (propitiate) | Radfahrer | Schlimmbesserung (marmoreal) | Papierkrieg

December 2005 Archives

• The Dominant Animals: Insects: metamorphosis | chiten (integument) | insectifuge | blattoid (bdelloid) | lepidoptera | imago
• Anti-Black Discrimination: redlining | underground railroad | grandfather clause (to grandfather) | DWB (FWM) | Beulah Land | blockbusting | restrictive covenant | Jim Crow
• More Christmas-Carol Words: cloven | gladsome | swathe, swaddle (snath, snathe or snead) | to pine | babel | roundelay (rondelle, rondel, rondeau, rondel)
• Odd and Amusing Scientific Names: draculin | manxane (manxine | triskelion) | cummingtonite (polymorphism) | cristane (crissum | cloaca | skatole | cubane | cadaverine | putrescine) | erotic acid | methionylglutaminylarginyltyrosyl- (etc.)

November 2005 Archives

• Toponyms: toponym | New York minute | Bronx cheer (Goldilocks economy) | serendipity (buckyball, fullerene, buckytube | buckminsterfullerene) | | denim (jeans, levis, serge | twill, Genoa) | sherry
• Toponyms from heavenly places: cockaigne | Elysium | tempean | Eden | tranquillityite | Shangri-La | ***
• Thanksgiving: non nobis | beatitude | minerval | benison | gramercy | hosanna/hosannah

October 2005 Archives

• Words of Fakeitude or Error: esquivalience | ghost word | obsidian | Lucifer | gruntled (demerit) | copyright trap (honeytoken, canary trap)
• | boomerang kid | calaboose | boomslang | boohai | booboisie | boobocracy | boot hill

September 2005 Archives

• Horticulture words: umbrage (umbrageous) | sprigging | allelopathy | espalier | tilth | cultivar (monoculture) | geophyte (bulb, basal plate | corm | turnicate, imbricate | tuber | rhizome) | (alchemy, sport, witches’ broom, topophysis)
• Words of Railroading: deadhead | jerkwater | intermodal | wye | brownie points | featherbedding | dead man's switch/

July 2005 Archives

• Common Words missing from OED: mixed message | dual-use technology | | red state or blue state | bris | treasury bond (T-bond)
• Unpleasant Places: Dogpatch | slough of despond (slough) | aceldama (intestine) | Hooverville | take to the woodshed (or 'to woodshed') | ghetto
• Political Leaders as Eponyms: jimson weed (mow) | Queen Anne's lace | quisling | Nero | Molotov cocktail | Fabian | draconian

June 2005 Archives

• 'Hard words' from "River Horse": incarnadine | anadromous | palliate | cheval-de-frise | surreptitious | chandler (chandlery) | vinegaroon
• Less-known meanings of familiar words: fluke | clock | secular | sublime (or sublimate) | anorexic | sophisticate | riddle
• Weather words: heat island | pluvial (chott/shott, playa, sabkha, kavir) | incus (bontide) | graupel (couloir) | isobar (isopiestic) | undercast
• Eating and Drinking: comestible | Barmecide feast (barmecide) | borborygmi (abomasum, rumen, reticulum, omasum (manyplies, psalterium) | amuse-bouche (amuse-gueule) | degustation (degust) | smellfeast | shot-clog | curate's egg

May 2005 Archives

• "Colors of Spring" - and others: gamboge | cerulean | coquelicot (nidgetty) | virescent | purpure
• Incommodating Eponyms: twiss | fontange | Oliver's skull | sacheverell | furphy | crapper
• Words of the Law: specific performance | bright-line rule | safe harbor | stare decisis | fiduciary | standing | amicus curiae
• The issue of using "Hard Words": rebarbative | fulgurous (obloquy, contumely) | vertiginous (elegiac, mememto mori) | satrap | nugatory | jactitation (jactant) | antinomian (halakah)

April 2005 Archives

• Two for the Price of One: captious | pica (pied, magpie, pie) | fustian (fusty) | palladian | trepan | wattle (wattle and daub) | frottage
• Eyesight, used figuratively: lyncean | purblind | strabismus | inveigle | tunnel vision | scotoma | myopic
• Papal Election: scrutineer | conclave | consistory | plinth | novendial (novennial, novena) | papabile | lapidary
• Terms from French: louche | sobriquet | cap-a-pie | soubrette | beau ideal | volte face | amour propre

March 2005 Archives

• Stupidity: unasinous
• Words OED has only from other Dictionaries: epulose | queme | nexility | spermologist | antipelargy | furfuration | testiculose (cromulent)
• Saints Preservèd: Lazy Lawrence | petrel | tawdry | shoddy | samphire (odds and sods) | magdalen | magdalene | maudlin | tantony | bedlam | barmy
• "Untranslatable" Foreign Words: mamihlapinatapei | saudade | gezellig | pochemuchka | kloshar | ilunga

February 2005 Archives

• Book Words: bibliophile | vade mecum | polyglot | escritoire | marginalia | frontlist, midlist, backlist
• "Bell" Words: belgard | beldam | campanology | gavial | bellwether | cloche | belvedere
• Government and Rule: thalassocracy | malversation | immobilism | kleptocracy | misprision | ptochocracy
• Jane Austen #3: superannuated | sedulous | (ossify, assiduous) | puppyism | self-consequence | importunate | imaginist | tremulous

January 2005 Archives

• Tsunamis and related words: shallow-water wave | tsunami | ring of fire | bathemetric
• From an old joke: mutable | beddable (bedabble);
• Eponyms (non-character) from writings: Baedeker | Boswell | roorback | pasquinade | yapp binding | machiavellian | Knickerbocker
• Etymologies in the Sky: moon | meteoroid | meteor | meteorite | cosmos (cosmology)

December 2004 Archives

• High-powered Positives: refulgent | gracile (gracillent | hominid) | munificent | foudroyant | puissant | lissom | coruscating
• Jane Austen, revisited: sportive | nuncheon | dissentient | valetudinarian | behindhand | missish | postilion
• Lesser-Known Counterparts of Familiar Words: inhume | numerate (innumerate) | ubiety, nullibiety (ubication, nullibicity) | trepid (timorous) | underwhelm | antapology | estivate;
• Wintry words: hibernal | boreal (ceviche) | algid (marmoreal, marmorean) | frore | rime, rimy

November 2004 Archives

• Words of Election and Voting: psephology | October surprise | soft money | if-by-whiskey speech | yellow dog democrat (yellow dog | yellow-dog contract | blue dog democrat)
• Abecedarian Insults: caitiff | stocious | callow | losel | (lorel) | mawkish | (hardscrabble) | vixen | blatherskite
• Words from Chess: check | endgame (scacchic) | pawn | | gambit | stalemate |
• The Common Man: hoi polloi | demos | third estate | proletarian (proletariat) | plebeian | lumpenproletariat | lumpen

October 2004 Archives

• Spelling Bee Words: spoliator | | troche (pastille) | smaragdine | lyceum (lycée) | pococurante | eudaemonic (eudaemonism | eucatastrophe)
• I'll Do That for You: succedaneum | ringer | locum (locum tenens) | catspaw | scapegoat | whipping boy | fall guy | paranymph
• Jane Austen Words (part 1): verdure | collation | repine | raillery | moiety | outré | obtrude
• Odd and Curious Beasties: gillygaloo | galoopus bird | luferlang | goofus bird | goofang | sandhill perch | upland trout | squonk | rubberado | augerino

September 2004 Archives

• Terms of International Relations: uti possidetis, balkanized (narrowcasting), Munich, frogmarch, prisoner of war, illegal combatant (unlawful combatant), casus belli
• Bizarre etymologies: nimrod, dupe, indri, dumbbell, grapefruit, gunsel, bizarre
• Confusing Doublets, redux: solecism/solipsism, egoism/egotism, incommensurable/commensurate/commensal, venial/venal (venery¹, venery²), perspicuous/perspicacious , obscurant/obscurantist, hebetic/hebetude
• Lifestyles, "On the street where you live": easy street, Park Avenue, Queer Street, Tobacco Road, skid row, Main Street, Acacia Avenue

August 2004 Archives

• "-asterous" Pejoratives: poetaster, medicaster, grammaticaster, politicaster, witticaster (witling), philosophaster, criticaster, theologaster
• Ethnic slurs of the Classical Greeks: boeotian, sybarite, abderian, solecism, laconic, sardonic, corinthian
• Words from Italian: irredentist (irredenta), dolce vita, inamorata (inamorato), peccadillo, punctilio, sotto voce, tramontane

July 2004 Archives

• Terms from Mathematics: circular argument, elliptical, parabola (parable), hyperbole, exponential, fractal, iff
• Uplifting Eponyms: tadoma, cinchona, braille, quassia, pasteurize, lazaretto, guillotine, stovaine, plimsoll line
• Guess the theme: crapulous, interbastation, titubate, infucation, jaculate, turdine, schist
• Varieties of Written Works: roman à clef, hagiography, short-short (flash fiction), chrestomathy, bildungsroman (entwicklungsroman), think piece, feuilleton

June 2004 Archives

• The body, especially joints: noop | uvula | popliteal | paxwax | blype | racklettes | anconeal | olecranon
• The press reflects on Reagan: acolyte | talisman | nascent | hegemony | clerisy | reaganomics
• Have You Ever Met People Like This? polymath (paradigm) | mossback | mendicant | gamin (gamine) | flaneur (flaneuse | flânerie) (wastrel) | latitudinarian | karoshi
• Terms of Illogic: amphibology/amphiboly (delphic) | equivocation | ad hominem argument | tu quoque | ipse dixit | post hoc | | begging the question

• Eponyms of Women: bloomers | Johnny Appleseed | magdalen | Alice blue | Shirley Temple | catherine wheel | Thatcherism
• From the Securities Markets: IPO | underwriter | Chinese wall | random walk | dead cat bounce | Dutch auction
• "Dutch" Phrases: Dutch treat | Dutch reckoning | Dutch widow | Dutch wife | Dutch courage | Dutch defense | Dutch comfort
• Not Azygous: Shy Spouse-words: azygous | cisatlantic | ullage (bunghole) | pecunious | nocent | clement
• The body, especially joints: noop | uvula | popliteal | paxwax | blype | racklettes | anconeal | olecranon

• Interesting Etymologies: dirge | enthusiasm | midwife | shambles, sunbeam | fizzle | trivial
• Shakesperean Words: cantle (pommel) | pickthank | foison | lenity (bawcock) | chuck (seel) | runagate | gleek | gall
• The Art of the Book: portalan (rhumb line | loxodrome) | codex | codex | repoussé | colophon | psalter (illuminate) | vellum | minature [noun]
• Words that made me laugh: | | muckender | Pogglethrope | poppycock | panjandrum | grand panjandrum |

• Martha Stewart Words: eponymous (epynomic) | pandemic | bacchanalia | conflate | turpitude | verdure
• Caesar Words: caesarism | cognomen (agnomen, prænomen, nomen) | rubicon | double comparative (double superlative) | princeps (facile princeps | primus inter pares) caesar cipher (cipher | code | substitution cipher) | triumvirate
• Ineffectual People, from Yiddish: schlemiel (schlimazel) | klutz (plonk) | schmendrick | shlepper | nebbish | schnook | schmo
• Blowing in the Winds: eolian (aeolian) | ventifact | williwaw | eluvium (elute | elutriate | effluvium | alluvium | allivion) | windrow | spindrift | anabatic (katabatic)

• Horse Words: capriole | chevalet | bidet | harridan | crock | caparison
• More Horse Words: spavined | tacky | gambol (gambado) | desultory | tattersall | cozen
• Horse Sense: Terms of logic: Hobson's choice | negative pregnant | induction (deduction) | fuzzy logic | enthymeme | sorites | slippery slope
• Characters from Greek Myth: protean | promethean | Orphean | syphilis | pandora's box | rhadamanthine;
• psaphonic

• Hi Ho, Hi Ho, It's Off to Work We Go: moirologist | tachygrapher | accoucheuse/accoucheur | visagiste
• Pronunciations / Mispronunciations: cacoepy (orthoepy) | sigmatism | epenthesis (troilism) | hirrient | lambdacism (lallation) | mouillé, rhotacism (pararhotacism | paralambdacism)
• Words from the Comic Strips: wimpy | worrywart | dagwood | jeep | zilch | goon | yellow journalism

• Science concepts: Hawthorne effect | synesthesia | Laffer curve | alpha male | hormesis
• Words from Ogden Nash: afflatus | abattoir (mead) | prognathous (bathos) | guerdon | samaritan | gossoon | punctilio
• Double-Dactyl Words: antepenultimate | tergiversate | teleology | supralapsarian | infralapsarian (logomachy) | historiography | plenipotentiary
• "BBC words": Boisterous Bumptious Coinages: sockdolager | hornswoggle | skedaddle | discombobulate | scalawag | lollygag (rambunctious) | absquatulate

• Gallic Words: démarche | idée fixe | moue | tête-à-tête | jeunesse dorée | dégagé | passe-partout
• The body, especially digits: dactylion | tragus | thenar | gular/gula | lunula | oxter (oxter pipes) | minimus
• Eponyms of Americans: Annie Oakley | John Hancock | Shermanesque | mae west | derringer | foley | sousaphone
• Confusing doublets: indict-indite | cervine | exigent-exiguous | fulgurate-fuliginous | risorial-rasorial (gibbet) | congener-congeries-conger | antinomy-antimony

• The Seven Deadly Sins: superbia-orgulous | ira-oxythymous-irascible | gulosity | luxuria-lenocinant |
• Words from Baseball: goose egg | charley horse | cat-bird seat | ballpark (ballpark figure) | rain check | hot stove league | switch-hitter
• It's about time: hesternal | yestreen | quotidian-diurnal-circadian | hebdomadal | | sempiternal | bimester
• Words from Dorothy Parker: lodestar | gyve | sapience | fardel | extemporanea | leal | quondam

• Eponyms from Drama: dundrearies | lothario | scaramouche | Mickey Mouse | shylock | thrasonical | ignoramus
• Euphonious Words: asphodel | cerulean | cuspidor | gossamer | numinous | vellicate | mellifluous
• Verbs: Let's have some action!: pullulate | nettle | jugulate | truckle | deracinate | flummox (gumshoe) | periclitate
• Morgan words: morgen | fata morgana | homorganic | morganatic | morganite | morgan | morganize
• Swords: spathe | foible-forte | claymore mine (skean-dhu or sgian-dhu) | gladiate-ensiform-xiphoid | swashbuckler | seif dune | sword of Damocles

• For your aMUSEment: Parnassus | uranic (chthonic) | cliometrics | terpsichorean | euterpean (concinnity, diapason) | calliopean | thalian
• Sounds of Nature: poppling | psithurism | tintinnabulation | ting | crepitate | sough (beck) | croodle
• Seeing Red: rubric (rubricate, red-letter day) | red tide | cherry pick | red-pencil (blue pencil) | roborant (roberate) | erythrism (albinism, leucism, melanism, xanthism, Flavism, vitiligo)
• Words from Gilbert & Sullivan's Mikado: equipoise | minion | ablution | condign | tocsin | effulgent | pooh-bah

• People and how words affect them: gobemouche | dehort | quidnunc | philodox | shanachie
• Deletions from Webster's Collegiate: strobotron | straw boss, legman | nephoscope | skibob | frutescent
• Words from The Da Vinci Code: entresol, transmogrify (pagan, villain) | scotoma (gaorgoyle) | tadger-todger (heretic) | effigy | hermaphrodite | oculus | Baphomet
• Signs of the Times: pilcrow | virgule (diagonal, separatrix, slant, slash, solidus) | macron-breve-diacritical mark | octothorpe | guillemets | grammalogue

• Animal words: dewlap | caudal-acaudal-scut | nidify-nidificate-nidicolous-niding | chirr | stridulate | epizootic-murrain-epizoic
• More Phrases from French: billet-doux | amour propre | soi-disant | raison d'etre | bete noire | bon vivant | au courant
• Cooking Terms: sweating | granita | spoom, wasabi | quahob | ramp | ganache | brut
• Bromatology - more food words: deaconing | albedo | runnels | gemel | bromatology | funistrada | sneeze guard | semese | eupeptic (dyspeptic)

• "Iraq words" - Q without U: Q-boat (Q-ship) | qiviut (qintar, qepiq, sheqel) | qoph (qaf, velar, velum) | qiana | qwerty | pinyin
• Bible stories: shunamitism | abishag | alcedama | | jehu | simony
• Oration: Types of Speeches: jeremiad | peroration | stemwinder | panegyric | tub-thumping | demegoric | histrionic
• Individuals' Relation to Society: apartheid | manuduction | syntality | marplot | ostracize | sodality

• Words from the News: tendentious | apocalyptic | kneecap | recuse | nickel-and-dime | vituperation | de facto | jihad
• Words from Astrology: saturnine | lunacy (lunatic fringe) | mercurial | siriasis | dismal | opposition | influenza (influence)
• Tuchman's The First Salute: argosy | odious | rectitude | inveterate | sagacity | welter | hegemony | machination | abjure | obdurate | imbue | enmity | vainglorious | canny

• Pleasant Conversation: eutrapely | persifleur-persiflage-quiz | causerie-causeur-causeuse | phatic | subtlist-subtilism | birkie | bridgebuilder
• Epi- Words: epigone | epicenter | epicure | epicene | epiphany | epicrisis | epithet
• A Hodge-Podge of Reduplicatives: higgledy-piggledy | niminy-piminy | namby-pamby | tuppenny-ha'penny | jiggery-pokery | hunky-dory | hugger-mugger
• Words of the War: billet | cadre | frag | hydrophobic | inveigh | hubris | atavistic

• Characters from Charles Dickens: pecksniffian | Micawber | Gradgrind | Fagin | Turveydrop | Uriah Heep | Pickwickian
• Love: cingulomania | typhlobasia | forepleasure | noeclexis | sphallolalia | limerance | vernalagnia-vernorexia
• Love gang agley (gone awry): imparlibidinous | anteric | synechthry | anagapesis | liffy | artamesia | amplexus
• Unexpected etymologies from animals: steward | pavilion | recalcitrant | halcyon | bugle | butcher | canopy | easel | pedigree | auspicious

• Mythical Places: Valhalla | Ultima Thule | Gotham | Arcadia | Timbuktu | cloud-cuckoo-land | Xanadu
• Common Food Names with Interesting Stories: Jerusalem artichoke | turkey | lobster Newburg | corn | hot dog | sundae
• Words from US Football: end run | political football | punt | quarterback | moving the goal posts | Monday morning quarterback
• Weird and Wonderful Words: fleer | handsel | gallimaufry | mundungus | wamble | moil (marge)

• Counterpart Words, Female and Male: anile | cicisbeo | tarassis | sororal | andropause | muliebrity | yonic
• Words from "Pirates of Pergamon": parthenian | sapphism | chakra (chakram) | ebullient | omphalos (omphaloskepsis) | antipodes
• How did Language Arise? bow-wow theory | ding-dong theory (echoic, onomatopoetic, onomatopoeia) | ha-ha theory | ba-ba | sing-song | pooh-pooh | you-he-ho | ma-ma | pa-pa
• Phrases from Latin: ex cathedra | Quis custodiet ipsos custodes? | vox populi | in flagrante delicto | rara avis | e pluribus unum

• All the world's a stage ... : pule | hobbledehoy | aesthete (aestheticize) | irascible | pontificate | senescent | edentate | glabrous
• Water-metaphor Words: slough | limpid | wellhead-wellspring | quagmire | antediluvian | niveous
• German Lingo Of Mental States: sprachgefühl | Anshauung | weltanshauung | schadenfreude | gemütlich | | | | torschlusspanik

• Words that Sound Dirty - But Aren't: titivate | cunctation | decoction | pricket | cockshy | assize | testaceous
• Words from The Raven by E. A. Poe: craven | mien | pallid | obeisance | censer | nepenthe | surcease
• The Colors of Fall: filemot | brunneous | festucine | castaneous | ferruginous | pavonine | eau de nil | caesious | glaucous
• Things That Go Bump In The Night: | doppelganger | chichevache bicorne (dungavenhooter) | eldritch | bodach | pandemonium | cockatrice (basilisk, three-tailed bavalorus) | arcanum (famulus, hodag, jackalope) | necromancy (langsuir) | phantasmagoria (lycanthrope)

• Phrases from French: je ne sais quois | savoir faire | bon mot | qui vive | beau monde | sangfroid
• Anniversary of 9/11/2001: annus mirabilis (annus horribilis) | nescient | ineffable | lachrymose | meliorism
• This thing must have a name!: finial (harp) | pintle | escutcheon | gnomon | ferrule | keeper (billet) | aglet (grommet) | plunger | zarf (culacino)
• Words from Characters in Homer's Iliad: stentorian | myrmidon | Cassandra | nestor | hector | chimerical (chimera) | thersitical
• Words from Russian Politics: stakhanovite | samizdat | apparatchik | gulag | bolshevik

• Words from Yiddish: golum | Miss MacKenzie | chacham | tsatske | mensh
• Words from Politics: gerrymander | mugwump | jingoism | carpetbagger | watergate | know-nothings
• Personalities from Literature: Panglossian | Ozymandian | munchkin | Horatio Alger | Simon Legree | Pollyanna
• Gilbert and Sullivan: Battle of the Sexes: quiddity | incubus | abjure | chary | popinjay | philtre