Word of the Day
metronymic
adjective
derived from the name of a mother or other female ancestor.
More about metronymic
Metronymic “derived from the name of a mother” is an adaptation of the Ancient Greek term mētrōnymikós “named after one’s mother,” which is equivalent to mḗtēr (stem mētr-) “mother” and -ōnymos “having the kind of name specified,” plus the adjectival suffix -ikos. A common variant of metronymic is matronymic, and because both terms are widely accepted, the decision of which to use is yours to make. Do you preserve the original Ancient Greek stem metr-, or do you opt for its more popular Latin cognate stem, matr-? The male equivalent of metronymic (and matronymic), meaning “derived from the name of a father,” is patronymic. Because the Ancient Greek and Latin stems meaning “father” are both patr-, however, patronymic is the only option for paternal namesakes. Metronymic was first recorded in English in the late 1860s.
how is metronymic used?
Matrilineal cultures are more likely to use metronyms. One example of these are the Lobi of Burkina Faso and Cote d’Ivoire, where children receive at birth a metronymic surname that establishes kinship with their mother .… These names are given to children of both sexes, but whereas the daughters pass the name on, the sons do not have such a privilege.
There are currently over 1 million last names in Italy …. Most surnames are born from four general categories: personal names, nicknames, places, and occupations. The most common origin is the personal surname that comes from the name of an ancestor, such as a father or grandfather. These are known as patronymic surnames, but some could be metronymic, meaning that they come from a female ancestor.
feijoada
noun
a dish of rice and black beans baked with various kinds of meat and sausage.
More about feijoada
Feijoada “a dish of rice, black beans, and meat” is a borrowing from Brazilian Portuguese and a derivative of Portuguese feijão “bean.” Feijaõ, along with its cognates in other Iberian languages (e.g., Galician freixó and Spanish frijol), comes from Latin fasēlus, which refers to a legume such as the cowpea or the kidney bean. Fasēlus is itself an adaptation of Ancient Greek phásēlos, which linguists hypothesize derives from a Mediterranean substrate. As we learned from the recent Word of the Day spelunk, a substrate is a language that goes extinct once another language intrudes where it is spoken—but not before contributing substantial vocabulary to the intruding language. In this case, phásēlos was likely a word that existed in a now-lost language spoken thousands of years ago in what is now Greece before the Indo-Europeans migrated there from western Asia. Feijoada was first recorded in English in the early 1940s.
how is feijoada used?
Brazilians eat black beans (feijão preto) with almost every meal, and they’re an important ingredient in feijoada, a bean-and-pork stew that’s largely considered the South American country’s national dish. To protect these bean varieties for the future, the Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation (known as Embrapa) sent 514 samples to Svalbard. The selection represents a “microcosm” of all the black bean types in the country.
The shift away from animal-based protein is mainly being driven by health concerns, experts say.… A few years ago, giving up meat was unthinkable for the vast majority of Brazilians. Feijoada, the national dish, is a stew made with beans and pork. Weekend outdoor cookouts in which families and friends gather for hours over generous spreads of steak, chicken and sausage are a revered ritual across the country.
frowzy
adjective
dirty and untidy; slovenly.
More about frowzy
Frowzy “dirty and untidy” is of uncertain origin, but that knowledge gap has hardly stopped linguists from speculating. One possible connection is to dialectal British English frowsty “musty; ill-smelling” and frough “brittle, frail,” both of which are also of uncertain origin. However, any or all of these three terms may be related to Old English thróh “rancid; rancor,” which is itself, yet again, of uncertain origin. Unlike the standard or mainstream versions of a language, in which the roots of the majority of the vocabulary are easy to deduce, dialects often remain under-documented, and this causes historical mysteries such as the source of frowzy to emerge every once in a while. Frowzy was first recorded in English circa 1680.
how is frowzy used?
Each year, right about now, I want to declare it Throw-in-the-Trowel-Week, as the aftermath of spring’s tender, joyous effusion goes beyond charmingly fuzzy to just plain frowzy and tattered. The garden has a bad case of what a friend calls “the shaggies” …. It’s looking messy out there. In the second half of June, I’m overcome by the inclination to close my eyes—to make it all disappear in “see no evil” fashion.
In we marched, tramp, tramp. Bayonets took the place of buncombe. The frowzy creatures in ill-made dress-coats, shimmering satin waistcoats, and hats of the tile model, who lounge, spit, and vociferate there,… were off. Our neat uniforms and bright barrels showed to great advantage, compared with the usual costumes of the usual dramatis personae of the scene.