Wondrous Words Wednesday is a weekly meme where you can share new words that you’ve encountered or spotlight words you love.  Feel free to get creative!   If you want to play along, grab the button, write a post and come back and add your link to Mr. Linky! Hosted by BermudaOnion.

Effervescent (ef-er-ves–uhnt): vivacious; merry; lively; sparkling
Origin: 1675–85; <Latin effervēscent- (stem of effervēscēns), present participle of effervēscere

Prophylactic (proh-fuh–lak-tik, prof-uh-): defending or protecting from disease or infection, as a drug
Origin: 1565–75; <Greek prophylaktikós of guarding, equivalent to prophylak- (base of prophylássein to guard beforehand)

Paradigm (par–uh-dahym, -dim): a set of forms all of which contain a particular element, especially the set of all infected forms based on a single stem or theme.
Origin: First recorded in 1475–85; from Late Latin paradigma “example,” from Greek parádeigma “pattern, model, precedent, example” (derivative of paradeiknýnai “to show side by side, compare”), equivalent to para- preposition and prefix + deik-, root of deiknýnai “to show, bring to light, prove” + -ma noun suffix denoting the result of an action

Sources: Dictionary.Com

Wondrous Words Wednesday is a weekly meme where you can share new words that you’ve encountered or spotlight words you love.  Feel free to get creative!   If you want to play along, grab the button, write a post and come back and add your link to Mr. Linky! Hosted by BermudaOnion.

Asymptomatic (ey-simp-tuh–mat-ik): presenting no symptoms or evidence of illness or abnormality.
Origin: First recorded in 1930–35

Acquit (uh–kwit): to relieve of a charge of fault or crime; declare not guilty
Origin: First recorded in 1200–50; Middle English aquiten, from Anglo-French, Old French a(c)quiter, derivative, with a(c)- “toward” (see ac-), from quite “free of obligations,” from Medieval Latin quit(t)us

Unprecedented (uhn-pres-i-den-tid): without previous instance; never before known or experienced; unexampled or unparalleled.
Origin: First recorded in 1615–25

Sources: Dictionary.Com

Wondrous Words Wednesday is a weekly meme where you can share new words that you’ve encountered or spotlight words you love.  Feel free to get creative!   If you want to play along, grab the button, write a post and come back and add your link to Mr. Linky! Hosted by BermudaOnion.

Boysenberry (boi-zuhn-ber-ee, -suhn-): A blackberry fruit with a flavor similar to that of raspberries,
Origin: 1930–35; named after R. Boysen, 20th-century American botanist, who bred it

Nephilim: in the Hebrew Bible, a group of mysterious beings or people of unusually large size and strength who lived both before and after the Flood.

Grouse (grous): To grumble, complain
Origin: The verb grouse originated as a piece of British army slang, and several of its earliest occurrences are in Rudyard Kipling’s Barrack-Room Ballads (1892). Slang terms like grouse are notoriously difficult to etymologize, and grouse is no exception. Scholars have noted, however, a connection between grouse and Old French groucier, groucher, grocier “to grumble, murmur,” source of English grouch, grudge, and grutch (British dialect for grudge). Grouse entered English in the second half of the 19th century.

Sources: Dictionary.Com and Google

Wondrous Words Wednesday is a weekly meme where you can share new words that you’ve encountered or spotlight words you love.  Feel free to get creative!   If you want to play along, grab the button, write a post and come back and add your link to Mr. Linky! Hosted by BermudaOnion.

Apparition (ap-uh–rish–uhn): a supernatural appearance of a person or thing, especially a ghost; a spector or phantom; wraith
Origin: 1400–50; late Middle English apparicio(u)n<Anglo-French, Old French <Late Latin appāritiōn- (stem of appāritiō, as calque of Greek epipháneiaepiphany), equivalent to Latin appārit(us) (past participle of appārēre;see appear) + -iōn--ion

Redemption (ri-demp-shuhn): an act of redeeming or atoning for a fault or mistake, or the state of being redeemed.
Origin: 1300–50; Middle English redempcioun (<Middle French redemption) <Late Latin redēmptiōn- (stem of redēmptiō), equivalent to Latin redēmpt(us) (past participle of redimere to redeem) + -iōn--ion

Entrepreneur (ahn-truh-pruh–nur): a person who organizes and manages any enterprise, especially a business, usually with considerable initiative and risk.
Origin: 1875–80; <French: literally, one who undertakes (some task), equivalent to entrepren(dre) to undertake (<Latin inter-inter- + prendere to take, variant of prehendere) + -eur-eur.

Sources: Dictionary.Com

Wondrous Words Wednesday is a weekly meme where you can share new words that you’ve encountered or spotlight words you love.  Feel free to get creative!   If you want to play along, grab the button, write a post and come back and add your link to Mr. Linky! Hosted by BermudaOnion.

Vivacious (vi-vey-shuhs, vahy-): lively; animated; spirited
Origin: 1640s, from Latin vivax (genitive vivacis) “lively, vigorous” (from PIE root *gwei- “to live”) + -ous. Related: Vivaciously.

Inauguration (in-aw-gyuh–rey-shuhn, -guh-): an act or ceremony of inaugurating.
Origin: “ceremonial investiture with office; act of solemnly or formally introducing or setting in motion anything of importance or dignity,” 1560s, from French inauguration “installation, consecration,” and directly from Late Latin inaugurationem (nominative inauguratio) “consecration,” presumably originally “installment under good omens;” noun of action from past-participle stem of inaugurare “take omens from the flight of birds; consecrate or install when omens are favorable,” from in- “on, in” (from PIE root *en “in”) + augurare “to act as an augur, predict” (see augur (n.)).

Umbrageous (uhm-brey-juhs): apt to take offense.
Origin: Umbrageous has two main senses: “creating or providing shade, shady” and “apt or likely to take offense.” The word comes via French ombrageux “shady; inclined to take offense,” from Latin umbrāticus “(of a person or an activity) living or performed in the shade, secluded, devoted to quiet, impractical pursuits.” Umbrāticus, a derivative adjective and noun of umbra “shadow, shade, reflection, outline,” does not have the senses “shady, providing shade” or “apt or inclined to take offense,” which are senses that English borrowed from 17th-century French. Umbrageous entered English in the second half of the 16th century.f

Sources:

Dictionary.Com
Online Etymology Dictionary

Wondrous Words Wednesday is a weekly meme where you can share new words that you’ve encountered or spotlight words you love.  Feel free to get creative!   If you want to play along, grab the button, write a post and come back and add your link to Mr. Linky! Hosted by BermudaOnion.

Aoristic (ey-uh-ris-tik): Indefinite, Intermediate
Origin: Aoristic “indeterminate, undefined,” comes from Greek aoristikós, a derivative of the verbal adjective aóristos “unlimited, unbounded, indeterminate, debatable,” which is a compound of the negative prefix a-, an– (from the same Proto-Indo-European source as un– in English and in– in Latin), and the verbal adjective horistós “definable (of words), delimited (of property or land).” Horistós comes from the verb horízein “to divide, separate,” whose present active masculine participle horízōn “separating,” when modifying the noun kýklos “circle” (“the separating circle”) refers to the (apparent) circle separating the land from the sea, the horizon. Horízōn kýklos seems to be a coinage of Aristotle’s; so it can be trusted. Aoristic entered English in the first half of the 19th century.

Withersoever (hwith-er-soh-ev-er, with-): To Whatever Place
Origin: Whithersoever, now archaic, meaning “to whatever place,” comes from Middle English whider-so-evere, whidersere, whidursever, an adverb phrase that could be spelled as two or three words; the one-word spelling first appears in the first half of the 17th century. Etymologists break down whithersoever in several ways: whitherso (by itself meaning “whithersoever”) + ever; whither + so + ever; whider + so-ever; and whider–so + ever. Old English has the adverb phrase swā hwider swā, which means the same thing as the Middle English forms but is not their direct ancestor. Whithersoever entered English in the first half of the 13th century.

Belesprit (bel-es-pree): A Person of great wit or intellect.
Origin: Bel-esprit “a person of great wit or intellect” is a French term. It means literally “beautiful mind, fine mind, wit,” and by extension “person of wit and intelligence.” Bel is the regular French development of Latin bellus “nice, pretty, handsome, charming,” a diminutive adjective formed from bonus “good, good at (something), morally good.” The French noun esprit “spirit, mind” comes from Latin spiritus “breath, breathing, vital principle, soul.” Bel-esprit entered English in the first half of the 17th century.

Source: Dictonary.Com