Word of the Day
More about rort
The noun rort is an example of a back formation. It was formed from the adjective rorty, “boisterous, rowdy” or earlier “fine, splendid.” Rorty itself may be connected to the verb roar. Rort was first recorded in English in the mid-1920s. Learn more about common back formations in English.
EXAMPLE OF RORT USED IN A SENTENCE
The Friday night gathering turned into a wild rort, with wine and revelry lasting until dawn.
northpaw
adverb
with or for the right hand; right-handedly.
More about northpaw
Northpaw is often said to come from baseball, with a westward-facing pitcher’s right arm to the north, but this claim remains unproven. Many languages associate handedness with cardinal directions; compare Biblical Hebrew yāmîn, meaning both “right hand” and “south.” Northpaw was first recorded in English in the late 1890s. Northpaw is one of the recent additions to Dictionary.com.
EXAMPLE OF NORTHPAW USED IN A SENTENCE
To switch things up after hours of practicing, the left-handed pitcher threw northpaw instead.
chrestomathy
noun
a collection of selected literary passages, often by one author and especially from a foreign language.
More about chrestomathy
Chrestomathy is equivalent to Ancient Greek chrêsthai, “to use, need,” and manthánein, “to learn.” Chrêsthai is a distant relative of greedy and yearn, and as its stem math- would suggest, manthánein is indeed the source of mathematics and polymath. Chrestomathy was first recorded in English circa 1830.
EXAMPLE OF CHRESTOMATHY USED IN A SENTENCE
The chrestomathy, which contained several autobiographical excerpts translated from Spanish, provided the students with a glimpse into the author’s cultural heritage.