Word of the Day
More about vernal
Vernal “relating to the season of spring” comes from the pretty rare Latin adjective vernālis, a derivative of the far more common adjective vernus. Vernus is a derivative of the noun vēr “the season of spring,” from Proto-Indo-European wesṛ-, which becomes vār in Old Norse, éar (and wéar) in Greek, vasarà in Lithuanian, and vesna in Old Church Slavonic. Vernal entered English in the first half of the 16th century.
how is vernal used?
The vernal equinox is one of two points in Earth’s orbit where the sun creates equal periods of daytime and nighttime across the globe. Many people mark it as the first day of the spring.
To this riot of stimuli, this vernal bombardment of the senses, I have capitulated without a fight.
gasconade
noun
extravagant boasting; boastful talk.
More about gasconade
Gasconade “extravagant boasting; boastful talk” comes straight from French gasconnade “bragging, boasting, a boastful story,” from the noun Gascon, denoting an inhabitant of Gascony in southwest France. Gascon ultimately comes from Latin Vasco, Vascō (inflectional stem Vascon-, Vascōn-), originally denoting the inhabitants of Vasconia, the territory on either side of the Pyrenees. Vascones becomes Guascones in Medieval Latin: Vasco is the source of Basque, and Guascon the source of Gascon. Gasconade entered English in the mid-17th century.
how is gasconade used?
We may also have figured out, or most of us may have, that the bluster and gasconade of the fear-mongers hasn’t really done us much good.
The president was impressed by Hooker’s achievements but disturbed by his gasconade.
nescience
noun
lack of knowledge; ignorance.
More about nescience
Nescience, “lack of knowledge, ignorance,” comes straight from Late Latin nescientia, a noun formed from nescient-, the stem of nesciēns, the present participle of nescīre “to be ignorant, not to know,” and the Latin (and Greek) noun suffix –ia. In Latin (and other archaic Indo-European languages, with the exception of Greek), ne– was the original negative for sentences: thus the pair sciō “I know,” and nesciō “I don’t know.” The usual sentence negative in Classical Latin is nōn, probably from earlier noenum “not one (thing),” itself a strengthening of ne with oenum (Classical Latin ūnum). Something similar happened in English, the adverb not being a reduced form of nought (also naught), a compound of the negative adverb ne and the noun wiht “thing, wight.” Nescience entered English in the first half of the 17th century.
how is nescience used?
Verily, geology might be termed “man’s nescience of creation,” wherein he best learns how little he can know.
The unexpected vantage point can help induce a beneficial nescience that disarms us of existing tools and systems of thinking.