More about august

The English adjective august ultimately derives from the Latin adjective augustus, an uncommon, quasi-religious adjective originally meaning “venerable, solemn,” first used by the Roman poet and playwright Ennius (239-169 b.c.). Augustus also means “majestic (in appearance), dignified,” as used in authors who lived before the emperor Augustus or were contemporary with him.

The etymology of augustus is unclear: it may be related to the verb augēre “to increase, enlarge, grow,” or it may be related to the noun augur, a noun of unknown etymology meaning “a Roman official who observes the flight of birds and interprets the omens.” Finally, it may be related to auspex, a synonym of augur but with an excellent etymology: avis “bird” and –spex “watcher,” from the verb specere “to observe.” It is also unclear why Octavian (the English short form of Gaius Julius Caesar Octavianus), the sole head of the Roman state after the Battle of Actium (31 b.c.), selected the old, obscure title Augustus for himself. Octavian had also styled himself Rōmulus, the legendary founder and first king of Rome, and Octavian, perhaps wishing to avoid associations with the monarchy, settled upon Augustus.

On January 16, 27 b.c., the Senate bestowed upon Octavian the titles Augustus and Princeps (Civītātis) “First Citizen (of the State), First Man (of the State),” and Augustus became the emperor’s official title. After Augustus’s time, the title Augustus was applied to succeeding emperors; the feminine title Augusta was given to the emperor’s wife (and occasionally to other close female relatives, such as a mother, grandmother, sister, or daughter).

August entered English in the late 16th century.

More about dumbledore

Dumbledore is a British dialect word, a compound of dumble, which is onomatopoeic, occurring variously as bumble-, dumble-, humble-, and the noun dor (also dorr) “an insect that makes a buzzing noise as it flies.” For her Harry Potter series, J.K. Rowling selected Dumbledore as the surname of the headmaster of Hogwarts because dumbledore is a dialect word for “bumblebee,” Albus Dumbledore loved music, and she imagined him walking around “humming to himself.” Dumbledore is recorded in English by the late 1700s.

More about dégringolade

The rare noun dégringolade “a quick deterioration or breakdown,” comes unchanged from French. The French noun is a derivative of the verb dégringoler (earlier désgringoler) “to tumble down.” The prefix dé– (dés-) comes from the Latin prefix dis– “apart, asunder.” The French noun suffix –ade ultimately comes from the Latin past participle suffix –ātus (-āta, –ātum). The verb gringoler may be a borrowing of Middle Dutch crinkelen ”to curl, meander.” Dégringolade entered English by the second half of the 19th century.