Word of the Day
indemnity
noun
compensation for damage or loss sustained.
More about indemnity
Indemnity comes from Middle French indemnité, from Late Latin indemnitās (inflectional stem indemnitāt-) “security from financial loss.” Indemnitās is first recorded in the writings of the Imperial Roman jurists Sextus Pomponius and Ulpian. The root word of indemnitās is the noun damnum “financial loss, deprivation of possessions or property, a sum to be paid in restitution.” Damnum comes from an unrecorded dapnom, a noun derivative of the extended root dap-, from the Proto-Indo-European root dā– “to apportion in exchange.” The same root yields Latin daps “sacrificial meal, banquet,” Old Norse tafn “sacrificial animal, meal” (also from dapnom), Greek dapánē “cost, expenditure” and dáptein “to devour, consume,” Sanskrit dāpayate “he divides,” and Armenian tawn “feast” (from dapni-). Indemnity entered English in the 15th century.
how is indemnity used?
I promise you indemnity for your loss, and an apology that shall, I trust, satisfy your feelings ….
On his arrival, as an indemnity for alleged insults offered to the flag of his country, he demanded some twenty or thirty thousand dollars to be placed in his hands forthwith ….
weal
noun
well-being, prosperity, or happiness: the public weal; weal and woe.
More about weal
The history of weal is complicated and confusing. The Middle English spellings include wele, wel(le), weil(e), weal(le) “worldly wealth, riches; possessions, goods; prosperity, good fortune; well-being, welfare; happiness, joy.” These exuberant Middle English spellings come from Old English wela, weola, weala “wealth, riches; prosperity.” The English meanings have always been influenced by the related adverb well—wel, wel(l)e in Middle English, and wel, weol, woel in Old English—which in general signifies successful accomplishment of the action of the verb. Weal entered English before 900.
how is weal used?
They did not consider a commitment to the public good, the common weal, to be at odds with the desire for prosperity.
I will not arise from this spot, O valorous and redoubtable knight, until your benevolence and courtesy vouchsafe me a boon that will redound to the honor and glory of your person and to the weal of the most disconsolate and aggrieved damsel that ever the sun beheld.
dishabille
noun
the state of being dressed in a careless, disheveled, or disorderly style or manner; undress.
More about dishabille
Dishabille or deshabille “the state of being dressed in a careless, disheveled, or disorderly style or manner,” comes from French déshabillé, the noun use of the past participle of the verb déshabiller “to undress.” The French prefix dés– is a regular development of the Latin prefix dis-, which often has, as here, a reversing force (like un– in the English pair tie and untie). The French verb habiller “to dress,” originally “to trim and smooth (a log for working), to arrange, prepare,” comes from Vulgar Latin adbilāre, abbilāre, a derivative of bilia “log, tree trunk” (originally a Gaulish word). The h– in habiller comes from the French noun habit “clothing” (from Latin habitus “physical condition, appearance, dress”). Dishabille entered English in the 17th century.
how is dishabille used?
It is daylight; is, then, the carriage to open and the empress to alight with one slipper on her feet, to be triumphantly conducted into the house? Ah, my friend, all Europe would smile at the idyllic empress who accompanied her husband on his journey in such a dishabille.
Yes, there are town houses, and yes, many prominent people hold the deeds to them because they don’t want to be seen in dishabille scooping up the morning paper ….