326: convention Oct 30, 2015

'Convention' has a few meanings, including the sense of a gathering, and in the sense of something traditionally accepted. Two related words, 'convene' and 'conventional', exemplify one sense respectively. 'Convention' ultimately comes from the Latin 'conventio(n-)' meaning ‘meeting, covenant’. 'Convene' is more conventional, in that it is closer to the original meaning than 'conventional' which originated in the late 18th century.

325: Lob and Lop Oct 29, 2015

The words 'lob' and 'lop' are similar, and not just because because of the similar sounds. 'Lob', in the late 16th century meant ‘cause or allow to hang heavily’ which comes from the archaic noun lob meaning, ‘pendulous object’. 'Lop' now usually denotes cutting, but originally this word was representative of limpness. Over time, 'lop'–similar to 'lob'–denoted hanging, specifically branches; the notion of cutting branches gave rise to the connotation the verb has today.

324: loath and loathe Oct 28, 2015

There are a number of words that are so similar in sound that people often confuse them; in the case of 'loath' and 'loathe', the confusion is even greater. 'Loathe' is a verb, and means to "feel intense disdain for", while 'loath' is an adjective, meaning "reluctant or unwilling". The difference in spelling has always been slight, the adjective coming from the Old English, 'lāth' and the verb coming from its verbal derivative, 'lāthen'.

323: society Oct 27, 2015

Society is ever-changing. The word 'society' came to English in the mid 16th century in the sense ‘companionship,' ultimately from the Latin word, 'socius' meaning ‘companion.’ Much like the ability to have hundreds of online friends, the word 'society' expanded to mean not just one companion, but whole communities of people, or the company of multiple other people.

322: drab and drap Oct 26, 2015

The adjective, 'drab' means "dull, lacking color", but its nounal meaning, "fabric of dull color" is more closely related to its origin. It came to English in the mid 16th century as a noun denoting plain and uncolored fabric. This word is believed to come from the Old French 'drap' meaning ‘cloth’, and it is related to the noun and verb, 'drape' which also denotes clothing. If you can come up with a fun tongue-twister with 'drab' and 'drape', with any of its possible parts of speech, leave it in the comments.

321: dragon and dragoon Oct 25, 2015

Just because no one has proven the existence of dragons does not mean that they have not had an impact on various aspects of culture. Mythology and folklore aside, the 'dragon', which was a type of 15th century gun, has influenced the early 17th century word, 'dragoon', an infantryman with a carbine or musket that was thought of as breathing fire like a dragon.

320: -fluent Oct 24, 2015

As promised, here is a look at words with a '-fluent' suffix. 'Affluent' usually refers to money or status, but its other sense of free flowing water is more literal. It comes from the Latin meaning ‘flowing toward, flowing freely'. Even 'fluent' has changed its meaning from what it used to be: ‘flowing freely or abundantly', and has now taken on a sense of solely eloquence in speech.

319: -fluous Oct 23, 2015

Words that end in '-fluous' have a dynamic meaning. Words such as, 'mellifluous', and 'superfluous', meaning 'to flow'. 'Superfluous' literally translates to 'over flow', and 'mellifluous' comes from 'mel', meaning 'honey'. The similar suffix '-fluent' will be discussed tomorrow.

318: Things and Stuff Oct 22, 2015

People will always need a way to discuss ambiguous entities, people, articles, events &c. In Modern English, there is 'stuff' and 'things'. In Old English, 'thing' was a word which meant almost exactly what it means today, including ‘meeting’ and ‘matter, concern’ as well as ‘inanimate object’. 'Stuff' on the other hand, until recently meant 'material for making clothes'.

317: pique Oct 21, 2015

Although 'pique' means, "stimulate interest or curiosity", it came to English in the mid 16th century denoting hostility between two or more people (as it still can today) from the French 'piquer' meaning ‘prick, irritate’.

316: quiver Oct 20, 2015

Certain sounds will carry certain meaning; that is the reason many onomatopoetic words that denote noises begin with aspirated sounds, like 'p' and 'b' (such as pow and bang). 'Quiver' as a verb also has its meaning tied to its phonetic pronunciation. It comes through Middle English from the Old English, 'cwifer' meaning ‘nimble, quick’. The initial 'qu-' sound is probably symbolic of rapid movement as is found in 'quaver and quick'.

315: excruciate Oct 19, 2015

'Excruciate', meaning to "torment (someone) physically or mentally", is a "rare verb"*. Although most derivatives are listed as the same word, such as 'happiness' being listed under 'happy', in many dictionaries, 'excruciating' is listed as a different word because it is common.  *It is so rare, it would seem that Facebook and many other sites do not recognize it as a word

314: calend Oct 18, 2015

Q: How many seconds are there in a year?
A:12–one every month
As such, there are also 12 calends, which are the first day of the month in the Roman calendar. This word comes to Modern English from Old English, originally denoting an appointed time, and ultimately comes from the Latin 'calendae' which means ‘first day of the month’. This day was when accounts were due and the order of days was proclaimed related to the Greek word 'kalein' meaning ‘call, proclaim’. 'Calends' is where the word 'calendar'.

313: gut and gutter Oct 17, 2015

Usually when words have the '-er' suffix, it is because that is a derivative. This is not the case in 'gutter', which comes from Middle English, originally meaning ‘cut grooves in’ and later, it was used to describe a candle that melts rapidly because it becomes channeled and rigid on one side. 'Gut' on the other hand, comes from the Old English 'guttas' which was most likely related to 'gēotan' meaning ‘pour’.

312: late Oct 16, 2015

Sorry for this late, 'late' post. This word comes from the Old English adjective, 'læt', meaning ‘slow, tardy’, and is related to 'lǣtan' meaning ‘leave behind, leave out’. 'Late' shares a an Indo-European root with Latin 'lassus', which means ‘weary’.

311: Moose and Goose Oct 15, 2015

People often confuse the plural of 'moose' to something other than 'moose', trying to mimic the pattern for 'goose'. The word comes from an Eastern Algonquin word, and borrowed as it is, the word does not follow the same rules as goose', which comes from Old English.

310: To Be Oct 14, 2015

How is it that 'am' 'are' and 'is' are all forms of 'to be'‽ The form used to be much closer, in Middle English, the verb used for we, ye, and they was, 'ben', similar to the 'been' and 'being' still used in Modern English. The variant forms like, 'am', 'is', (and also 'were', 'was' &c.) are related to the Indo-European root, similar to the Latin, 'sum' 'es(t)', although the origin of 'are' is unknown.

309: season and sow Oct 13, 2015

Although 'season' is a pretty common word, what it means to people now is different to what it did when societies tended to be more agrarian. It comes from Middle English ultimately deriving from the Latin word 'satio(n-)' meaning ‘sowing’. This word later came to mean ‘time of sowing’, to describe the various times for growing crops.

308: Ye and Þ Oct 12, 2015

'Ye' was the the plural of 'thou' ('þou'), back when English differentiated between second person singular and plural. The mistaken connection between 'ye' and 'the' is due to printing presses. In late Middle English þ came to be written identically with y, so that 'the' could be written 'ye', but it would always be pronounced as þ.

307: rap Oct 11, 2015

Are rappers really poets‽ Although 'rhasodes' a word from the Greek 'rhapsōidia', which in turn comes from 'rhaptein' meaning ‘to stitch’ and 'ōidē' meaning ‘song’ are singing poets,'rap' comes from Middle English, originally meaning ‘severe blow with a weapon’, which is probably onomatopoetic of the Swedish 'rappa' which means ‘beat'.